Black History Month screenings illuminate past and present issues

While the critically acclaimed Selma is still in theatres (and the questionable Black or White opens this week), Vancity Theatre is offering a Black History Month film series on Mondays throughout February that will survey history and contemporary issues with a varied selection of films.

Music is a recurring theme in several selections.

While we've had quite the fill of abusive, perfectionist mentors in the acclaimed films Whiplash and Foxcatcher, the documentary Keep On Keepin' On (multiple screenings starting on Sunday [February 1]) puts the polar-opposite type of teacher-student relationship in the spotlight. The film captures (over a five-year period) how the ailing 93-year-old jazz trumpeter Clark Terry nurtures and supports the talent of 23-year-old blind Japanese-Jewish pianist Justin Kauflin, who struggles with self-confidence.

The 1959 Brazilian feature Black Orpheus (February 9) by French director Marcel Camus—which adapted the Greek myth of Orpheus who ventured into the underworld to rescue his wife—helped bring bossa nova to the world stage.

Meanwhile, the Oscar-nominated animated feature Chico and Rita (February 9) follows the 1940s Afro-Cuban love story between Rita, a singer, and Chico, a pianist, through the nightclubs of Havana and New York City, and on to Hollywood.

Shifting to modern pop music, the melodrama Beyond the Lights (February 16) follows a young R&B star (Belle's Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who faces internal implosion as she struggles with the dizzying pressures of the music industry and attempts to increasingly sexualize her image.

Speaking of images, technology may have made photography ubiquitous but the documentary Through a Lens Darkly (February 2) takes a look back how professional photographers captured images of African-American people, depending on who was behind the lens. For instance, it examines how African-American photographers defined themselves in photos versus white photographers who employed racist imagery.

A different way to address such issues is through comedy, and there's a screening of 1979's Richard Pryor Live in Concert (February 16), which captures the groundbreaking, brutally honest comedian performing in Long Beach, California.

To cap things off, the 1970 documentary King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis (February 23) details the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the beginning of the civil rights movement to his assassination.

For full details, visit the Vancity Theatre website.