JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T. + Discussion with filmmaker Leslie Harris and scholar Dr. Courtney Baker, moderated by Perpetratin’ Realism co-curator Dr. Felice Blake
Buy Tickets: $15.00 (general admission)
Location: AERO THEATRE 1328 Montana Ave Santa Monica, CA 90403
When Leslie Harris’ JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T. world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, it won the Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Achievement in a First Feature, and marked the arrival of an extraordinary, stand-out directorial voice. Many of the films dubbed part of the “New Black Realism” cinematic movement of the 1990s foregrounded gritty depictions of Black masculinity, anti-Black racism, and violence. But too many of these films also relegated Black women’s experiences to the background. Leslie Harris was not having it. Join us for this special screening of JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T. and a discussion with filmmaker Leslie Harris and scholar Dr. Courtney Baker, to mark its significance and place this film in the larger context of the "New Black Realism" movement of the 90s.
ABOUT THE FILM:
When Leslie Harris’ Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, it won the Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Achievement in a First Feature, and marked the arrival of an extraordinary, stand-out directorial voice. Many of the films dubbed part of the “New Black Realism” cinematic movement of the 1990s foregrounded gritty depictions of Black masculinity, anti-Black racism, and violence. But too many of these films also relegated Black women’s experiences to the background. Leslie Harris was not having it.
“Some people hear about my neighborhood and assume some real fucked-up things, but I’m gonna to tell you the real deal.” In Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., Harris refigures “the real” by taking head-on the stereotypes of the “welfare queen” and “hoodrat” – images that still permeate throughout media today, and function to justify controlling and surveilling Black girls and their access to healthcare and reproductive autonomy. Released one year after the Crown Heights “riots,” Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. captures a pre-gentrified Brooklyn and also creates whole new possibilities for the experiences, stories, and lives of Black women on screen. The alchemy of Harris’ genre-defying vision and Ariyan Johnson’s riveting performance as Chantel turns Black respectability inside out and crystallizes something rarely seen on screen: Black girls producing their own freedom and autonomy to be just who they choose.
Miramax acquired Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. off its hot, award-winning debut, and Harris became the first Black woman to win a Special Jury Prize at Sundance. Harris was set to become Hollywood’s newest indie darling “it” director. Afterall, Miramax orchestrated the commercial success of other indie favorites at Sundance, launching the careers of Harris’s white, male counterparts: Steven Soderbergh (with Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989), Quentin Tarantino (with Reservoir Dogs in 1992), and Kevin Smith (Clerks in 1994).
Nearly 30 years after its release, Just Another Girl was digitally restored in collaboration between UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Academy Archive, and Sundance – after years of only a single 35mm print of the film available for screenings. Let’s discuss.
Join us for this special screening of Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. and a discussion with filmmaker Leslie Harris and scholar Dr. Courtney Baker, moderated by Perpetratin’ Realism co-curator Dr. Felice Blake.
Format: DCP
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount