Tricia Rose

The Black Audio Film Collective’s seventh film envisioned the death and life of the African American revolutionary as a seven part study in iconography as narrated by novelist Toni Cade Bambara and actor Giancarlo Espesito. The stylized tableaux vivants that memorialise Malcolm’s life referenced the early 20th century funeral photography of James Van der Zee’s The Harlem Book of the Dead and the elemental static cinematography of Sergei Paradjanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates.

Tracking the country’s oldest beauty contest—from its inception in 1921 as a local seaside pageant to its heyday as one of the country’s most popular events—Miss America paints a vivid picture of an institution that has come to reveal much about a changing nation. The pageant is about commercialism and sexual politics, about big business and small towns. But beyond the symbolism lies a human story—at once moving, inspiring, infuriating, funny, and poignant. Combining rare archival footage, with a host of intimate interviews with distinguished commentators including Gloria Steinem, Margaret Cho, Isaac Mizrahi, former contestants and behind–the–scenes footage and photographs, the film reveals why some women took part in the fledgling event and why others briefly rejected it - how the pageant became a battle ground and a barometer for the changing position of women in society.

Ed Saxon est professeur de littérature dans le lycée d'une ville de province américaine. Il est 3h15 et Ed Saxon ne dort toujours pas. Eve, sa femme, n'est pas rentrée la veille. Tres inquiet, il finit par appeler la police. Les heures et les jours passent, Ed perd progressivement le sens du temps et des realités. La maison semble réagir à cette disparition, resonnant de bruits inquietants. Ed finit par apprendre que sa femme entretient une liaison avec George Simian, professeur d'éducation physique. Prix du jury au Festival de Gerardmer 2001.