The Chamber’s Keep it Local initiative promotes community support for local business ventures. Spending locally creates a strong economy and a sense of place which gives our town its unique lifestyle. The Keep it Local campaign will feature a different segment of businesses each month in 2018. February is Arts and Innovation Month.

A/perture Cinema announces a film series honoring and celebrating the history of black filmmakers, storytellers, actors and creatives during Black History Month. The series will also include panel discussions after each screening. 

As in many other industries, African Americans have made their mark in film narratively, stylistically, historically, topically, financially and artistically and this series will aim to highlight these significant contributions.

Tuesday, February 13 @ 6pm (film followed by panel)
IMITATION OF LIFE (1934)

The first of two film versions of Fannie Hurst’s novel, 1934’s Imitation of Life chronicles the friendship between two women–one white (Claudette Colbert), one black (Louise Beavers). Colbert is a widow with a baby daughter who hires Beavers, who also has a daughter, as a housekeeper. Colbert is a working girl who yearns to operate her own business, which she does thanks to Beavers’ special pancake recipe. Their years of friendship are chronicled in this moving adaptation. 

Tuesday, February 20 @ 6pm (film followed by panel)
PUTNEY SWOPE

After several years working along the margins of the underground film scene in New York, director Robert Downey broke through to wider recognition with the arthouse hit Putney Swope, a wildly irreverent satire of race and advertising in America. Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) is the token African-American executive at an otherwise all-white advertising agency when the chairman of the board unexpectedly drops dead. Through a fluke in the chain of command, Swope becomes the new head of the firm, and decides it’s time to do things his way. Antonio Fargas and Allen Garfield lead the supporting cast; Mel Brooks makes a cameo appearance.

Tuesday, February 27 @ 6pm (film followed by panel)
SELMA

Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay’s SELMA tells the real story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

All tickets $12.50
Tickets may be purchased in advance online (aperturecinema.com) or at the box office.

Film series panels are moderated by:
Ron Stacker Thompson – Screenwriting Faculty Member – UNCSA
Steven Jones – Retired Producing Faculty Member – UNCSA