Name: WILL (Jessie Maple, 1981) – New 4k Restoration
Start: 2024-10-17T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-10-17T21:00:00-05:00
Location: Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

WILL (Jessie Maple, 1981) – New 4k Restoration

The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern Universityis an engine that drives questioning, experimentation, and collaboration across fields of study, with visual arts at the center. Located on Northwestern’s lakefront campus in Evanston, The Block engages audiences from across the Chicago region with exhibitions, films, and programs that spark critical thinking and creativity.A collection of more than 6,000 works fuels teaching, learning, and research across the university, supporting a rotating exhibition program grounded in Northwestern’s curriculum. Welcoming over 40,000 visitors each year, The Block works in collaboration with artists, scholars, students, and community partners to present art and ideas that inspire reflection and dialogue.F﻿ree parking infoThe Block is free and open to all.

The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

The first feature film directed by an African-American woman, Jessie Maple's WILL gets its Chicago debut in a new 4k restoration.

Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

<h2>WILL</h2><h3>(Jessie Maple, 1981, 71 min, color, DCP)</h3> The original working title of WILL (1981), the first feature film directed by Jessie Maple, was “Higher Ground,” reflecting the aspiration of the film’s titular protagonist (Obaka Adedunyo), a former basketball star struggling to rise above addiction by becoming a youth mentor and coach. It was also the goal of the film’s director, who fought to shatter ceilings as a Black woman working as a professional cinematographer and editor in commercial and documentary filmmaking throughout the 1970s, and as a film exhibitor who created a cinema in the basement of her Harlem brownstone to elevate some of the most significant emerging Black filmmakers of the 1980s.WILL showcases Maple’s commitments to self-determination and collective uplift through a tough but tender narrative about recovery, mentorship, and second chances. Adedunyo’s fierce performance as Will is perfectly matched by the sensitivity of Loretta Devine (making her screen debut as Will’s wife Jean), and by the laid-back cool of Robert Dean’s “Little Brother,” a bright orphan threatened by drugs and poverty who becomes Will’s unlikely protégé. Maple and her husband, cinematographer Leroy Patton, bring the same clear-eyed yet affectionate lens to their characters as they do the streets, parks, and social spaces of Harlem, offering an antidote to sensationalized depictions of Black community in mainstream cinema.Despite being the first feature film directed by an African-American woman, WILL has been difficult to see throughout much of the last four decades. That promises to change with the recent completion of a multi-year restoration effort by Indiana University’s Black Film Center &amp; Archive (BFCA), the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History &amp; Culture, and the Center for African American Media Arts. Block Cinema is thrilled to present the Chicago debut of this new 4k restoration in conjunction with its fall series revisiting the Films by Women/Chicago ’74 festival.Films by Women/Chicago ’74 did not (and could not have) included a feature film directed by an African-American woman. With this screening of WILL, the Block recognizes the work of filmmakers and exhibitors like Maple, as well as the many archivists and scholars who have labored in the years before and since the 1974 festival to produce, distribute, preserve, and revive this and other underseen works by women filmmakers of color.The Block Museum thanks E. Danielle Butler, the Maple family, the Black Film Center/Archive, and Janus Films for their support of this program. Presented with support from Black Arts Consortium and the Department of Black Studies at Northwestern University. <h5>About FILMS BY WOMEN/CHICAGO '74:</h5>In September 1974, at the height of the feminist movement, the Film Center hosted Films By Women/Chicago ’74, a series of screenings, workshops, and discussions, drawing 10,000 patrons to over 70 short and feature films by women filmmakers. Organized by an all-woman collective with support from the Chicago Tribune, the festival offered a global survey of cinema from across its 60-year history. From mainstream Hollywood to activist documentary, arthouse to animation, it was the most diverse and expansive American survey of women’s cinema to date. It was also a watershed moment in Chicago cinema culture: according to committee member B. Ruby Rich, “women, for years after, would come up to me in the street to credit [us]—for jumpstarting their careers, ending their marriages, shaping their friendship.”This fall, the Gene Siskel Film Center and Northwestern University’s Block Cinema will celebrate the fifty-year anniversary of Films by Women/Chicago ’74. Screening series at both venues. will revisit some of the festival’s most original and daring films and filmmakers, while reflecting on the event’s enduring legacies.

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

WILL (Jessie Maple, 1981) – New 4k Restoration

More events from The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

Discover more events from The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, from Film & Media to other experiences you might love.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in Evanston and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.

WILL (Jessie Maple, 1981) – New 4k Restoration

More events from The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

Discover more events from The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, from Film & Media to other experiences you might love.

You might also like...

Browse more events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in Evanston and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.