Black Nature Films in the Park: Black Orpheus

Celebrating the publication of The World of Black Film, Ashley Clark presents a sunset screening of Black Orpheus in Brower Park

The Office of Councilmember Chi Osse, Field Meridians, and Ashley Clark celebrate the publication of The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films, a thought-provoking survey of important and influential Black films from around the globe, with a sunset screening of Black Orpheus (1959) in Brower Park.

“When I was preparing to write The World of Black Film, Black Orpheus was one of the first films on my list to include. A pivotal movie in the history of international Black on-screen representation, it’s an enthralling, unique work, and there is no better place to experience it than with a crowd of people in a beautiful open-air setting.”–Ashley Clark

Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus (1959) was an international cultural event, and it kicked off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning.