Event
Four Portraits Losing Ground [In-Person Only]
Wed Feb 09: 7.00pm PDT
$13 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 Member
*** Public safety notice ***
NWFF patrons will be required to double-mask while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. To be admitted, patrons ages 5+ will also be required to present EITHER proof of COVID-19 vaccination OR a negative result from a COVID-19 test administered within the last 48 hours by an official testing facility. Boosters are strongly recommended, though not required for entry.
NWFF is adapting to evolving recommendations to protect the public from COVID-19. Read more about their policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations at bit.ly/nwffcovidsafety
Kathleen Collins
US
1982
1h 26m
Series - Four Portraits: Films by African American Women Directors
About
At the time of her death from cancer in 1988, Kathleen Collins was just 46 years old, but she was already an internationally renowned playwright, a popular professor (at New Yorks City College) and a successful independent filmmaker.
Her second film, Losing Ground, tells the story of a marriage of two remarkable people, both at a crossroads in their lives. Sara Rogers, a Black professor of philosophy, is embarking on an intellectual quest to understand ecstasy just as her painter husband Victor sets off on a more earthy exploration of joy.
Celebrating a recent museum sale, Victor decides to rent a country house where he can return to more realism after years working as an abstract expressionist. Away from the city, the couples summer idyll becomes complicated by Saras research and by Victors involvement with a young model. When one of her students casts Sara as the woman scorned in a film version of the song Frankie and Johnny, she experiences a painful emotional awakening. While dealing with strong individuals and feelings, the film is also charming Collins described it as a comedy about a young woman who takes herself too seriously.
One of the very first fictional features by an African-American woman, Losing Ground remains a stunning and powerful work of art. Accomplished actors Seret Scott (who appeared in Louis Malles Pretty Baby and Ntozake Shanges play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf), Bill Gunn (Ganja and Hess) and Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead) star.
Funny, brilliant and personal, Losing Ground should have ranked high in the canon of indie cinema. But the early 1980s was not an easy time for independent filmmakers much less Black, independent, women filmmakers and the film was never theatrically released. It was shown once on PBSs American Playhouse, and then it effectively disappeared. Twenty-five years after her mothers death, Nina Collins rescued the original negative and created a beautiful new digital master of her mothers film. Losing Ground now looks and sounds as fresh, bracing and complex as it did when it was first filmed. It is a testament to Kathleen Collins incredible talent and a lasting treasure of African American and womens cinema.
(Kathleen Collins, US, 1982, 86 min, in English)
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LocationNorthwest Film Forum (View)
1515 12th Ave.
Seattle, WA 98122
United States
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Accessibility
Ticketing, concessions, cinemas, restrooms, and our public edit lab are located on Northwest Film Forum's ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible. We have a limited number of assistive listening devices available for programs hosted in our larger theater, Cinema 1. These devices are maintained by the Technical Director, and can be requested at the ticketing and concessions counter.
The Forum does NOT have assistive devices for the visually impaired, and is not (yet) a scent-free venue. Our commitment to increasing access for our audiences is ongoing, and we welcome all public input on the subject!
If you have additional specific questions about accessibility at our venue, please contact our Executive Director Vivian Hua at vivian@nwfilmforum.org
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