Looking for Langston

Overview

A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.

Keywords

Cast

Ben Ellison

Alex

Matthew Baidoo

Beauty

Akim Mogaji

James

John Wilson

Karl

Dencil Williams

Marcus

Guy Burgess

Dean

Dublin James Wahlberg

Carlos

Harry Donaldson

Leatherboy

Jimmy Somerville

Angel

Langston Hughes

Self (archive footage)