SCREENING IN THE BERNARD OSHER FOUNDATION AUDITORIUM
“Low-key yet capacious, Drylongso is an affectionate art-school razz; a study of female friendship; a reflection on gender, race, & violence; a murder mystery; and a portrait of Oakland.”
86 minutes. Rated R. Directed by Cauleen Smith. In English. DCP.
Note: This screening is part of a series, “The Talk of the Town,” inspired by the upcoming exhibit “Peggy Bacon: Biting, never Bitter.” Each film in this series concerns a female artist navigating their ambitions in a big city. Films in “The Talk of the Town” series will screen at 3 pm on Saturdays throughout June.
A lost treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/ romance. Alarmed by the rate at which the young Black men around her are dying—indeed, “becoming extinct,” as she sees it—brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) attempts to preserve their existence in Polaroid snapshots, along the way forging a friendship with a woman in an abusive relationship (April Barnett), experiencing love and loss, and being drawn into the search for a serial killer who is terrorizing the city. Capturing the vibrant community spirit of Oakland in the nineties, Smith crafts both a rare cinematic celebration of Black female creativity and a moving elegy for a generation of lost African American men.