August 1, 3pm, 2021 Uptight (1968)

August 1, 3pm, 2021
Uptight (1968) Jules Dassin, 1h 44 min
Free online Screening and Discussion

Intended as an updated version of The Informer, the first film in our series, Uptight (also known as Up Tight!) is a 1968 American drama film directed by Jules Dassin. Based also on the novel The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty, the setting was transposed from Dublin to Cleveland. The soundtrack was performed by Booker T and the MGs.

“Jules Dassin’s “Up Tight” is a forthright treatment of black militancy. Somewhat to my surprise, it doesn’t chicken out. There’s no backsliding, toward a conciliatory moderate conclusion. The passions and beliefs of black militants are presented head-on, with little in the way of comfort for white liberals.”
– RogerEbert

Panelist: André Seewood is a multiple award winning independent filmmaker, writer and musician.  He is the co-founder and former co-editor of FILM THREAT Magazine and a distinguished recipient of the Dennis Turner Memorial Film Studies Scholarship from Wayne State University.   He is the author of SCREENWRITING INTO FILM: Forgotten Methods & New Possibilities (2006), SLAVE CINEMA: The Crisis of the African-American in Film 2nd Edition (2011) and (DISMANTLING) The Greatest Lie Ever Told to the Black Filmmaker: Collected Essays on Film (2015). 

 

Floyd Webb
Floyd Webb is a filmmaker, curator and founder of the Blacklight Film Festival, Black World Cinema screening series and bwcTV.yv streaming channel. He was associate producer of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the dust, producer and director of music videos and commercials, and works in digital media production. His career as a cultural worker began during his participation as a 15 year old in 1969, with the Black Panther Party Rainbow Coalition and co-directing the National Committee to Combat Fascism in Maywood, IL.