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.
as Alex
as Beauty
as James
as Karl
as Marcus
as Dean
as Carlos
as Leatherboy
as Angel
as Self (archive footage)
as British (voice)
2019
2014
2018
1994
2018
1998
2018
1958
1999
1971
2019
2016
2019
2018
2019
1994
1957
