Larry Clark/L.A. Rebellion...



 

Larry Clark is a filmmaker and professor of film at San Francisco State University. Born in Ohio (where he was president of the Black Student Union at Miami University), he later drove to Los Angeles to enroll in UCLA film school.

With musical roots (his uncle was renowned jazz pianist Sonny Clark; his mailman father played sax and taught Latin dance, and his housekeeper mother sang opera), it’s fitting that his first feature, Passing Through (1977), is often cited as one of the best jazz films ever made. Featuring Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan People’s Jazz Arkestra and co-written by actor Ted Lange, it united a wide range of black artists. It had its world premiere at Los Angeles’ Filmex and went on to win the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival.

Clark’s second feature, Cutting Horse (2002) is a modern-day western about the ambitious dreams of struggling African American and Mexican American horse trainers.

Clark has received numerous awards, including the Locarno International Film Festival Special Jury Prize and the Oscar Micheaux Award for Cinematography. He travels the world extensively, often at the invitation of major film festivals and retrospectives.

Birthplace: Ohio

  
Education: UCLA, M.F.A. 1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

In the late 1960s, in the aftermath of the Watts Uprising and against the backdrop of the continuing Civil Rights Movement and the escalating Vietnam War, a group of African and African American students entered the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, as part of an “Ethno-Communications” initiative designed to be responsive to communities of color (also including Asian, Chicano and Native American communities). Now referred to as the "L.A. Rebellion," these mostly unheralded artists created a unique cinematic landscape, as—over the course of two decades—students arrived, mentored one another and passed the torch to the next group.

Some aspects of the story have been told before, in articles and in panel discussions, and at retrospective screenings of key films.  Now, UCLA Film & Television Archive has undertaken its L.A. Rebellion initiative to help illuminate previously unknown aspects of the story, the artists and the work, and facilitate a greater understanding of the whole.

The Archive’s initiative began with a desire to participate in the Getty Foundation funded "Pacific Standard Time" exhibition of post World War II Art in Los Angeles.  Three years later, dozens of filmmakers have been identified as part of the L.A. Rebellion movement and the initiative has grown into a massive effort by all departments of the Archive to bring to light the contributions of these first generations of Black UCLA film students.

---

Achieved endeavors of the L.A. Rebellion initiative include:

• Curated the groundbreaking Los Angeles film exhibition, “L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema,” which screened October 7 – December 17, 2011  
• Published a film exhibition catalog (PDF)
• Spearheaded a landmark multi-discipline symposium that featured scholars from around the country on November 12, 2011
• Toured an abridged film exhibition that visited major cities throughout North America (including New York, Toronto, Chicago and Atlanta) from September 2012 – November 2013

---

Ongoing endeavors of the L.A. Rebellion initiative include:

• Collecting, cataloging, restoring and protecting a wide variety of film, video and digital works
• Recording the stories, experiences and interpretations of L.A. Rebellion by the filmmakers and others through an ongoing oral history project  
• Hosting a L.A. Rebellion blog featuring lively conversation about the work and its context
• Posting early student works from the filmmakers online, with the goal of posting many more films in the future
• And the ever-expanding online research area you’re visiting now, with information on films and filmmakers, photos, video and an interactive timeline

UCLA Film & Television Archive’s L.A. Rebellion initiative is already the most holistic and ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken, but it’s only the beginning of what we hope will be a continuing interaction between the Archive, the filmmakers and the general public.

---

Future plans for the L.A. Rebellion initiative include:

• Discovering, preserving and restoring additional L.A. Rebellion work
• Loaning prints of L.A. Rebellion works to film festivals and other venues around the globe
• Editing a book of critical essays to be published by UC Press in 2015. 

Beyond the work itself, what makes the L.A. Rebellion movement a discovery worthy of a place in film history is the vitality of its filmmakers, their utopian vision of a better society, their sensitivity to children and gender issues, their willingness to question any and all received wisdom, their identification with the liberation movements in the Third World, and their expression of Black pride and dignity.

---

“L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema” is part of "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980."


http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/la-rebellion/larry-clark
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/la-rebellion/story-la-rebellion