Losing Ground
Jun 12 - Jun 21, 2015
(Kathleen Collins, United States, 1982, 86 min)
In her second and final feature, indie director Kathleen Collins captured an inner conflict between mind and spirit. Working at the time as both a film professor and filmmaker, Collins tells a story of the analytical at odds with the impulsive, personified in a husband and wife living in New York who are struggling with the incompatibility of their perspectives. The marriage is complicated by the introduction of a muse who more closely hews to the artist’s ideals of impulsive behavior.
As one of the first American films directed by an African-American woman, Losing Ground is a seminal work of independent cinema, made all the more memorable by intimate performances from leads Seret Scott and Bill Gunn. The film was years ahead of its time, and is only now receiving a theatrical release. With its sophisticated portrayals of African-American identities, it is not only a milestone in the history of American cinema, but also a long overdue celebration of Collins’ work, who died four years after its completion.