Directed by Ayoka Chenzira
USA | 1994 | Fiction | 85 min | English
Film Source: Kino Lorber
Sponsored by: Patricia Fontaine
Please note the virtual ticket for this film is only viewable in Vermont.
One of the first films produced, written, and directed by an African-American woman, this landmark achievement in ‘90s Black cinema has been restored by the Academy Film Archive, the Film Foundation, and Milestone Films. Dr. Ayoka Chenzira is a pioneer of cinematic storytelling, working consistently since the 1970s as an animator, experimental filmmaker, and media arts educator. Her debut live-action feature Alma’s Rainbow, from 1994, is a generously playful portrait of Black womanhood. Alma Gold (Kim Weston-Moran) is raising her teenage daughter, Rainbow (Victoria Gabriella Platt), and running a hair salon out of the downstairs of their Brooklyn residence. When Alma’s estranged and eccentric sister, Ruby (Mizan Nunes), returns from Paris, the sisters lock horns on the proper director for Rainbow’s education. It’s a coming-of-age story that wrestles with the complexities of self-expression, self-image, and sovereignty over one’s body. Alma’s Rainbow is presented in conjunction with Chenzira’s satirical animated short Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People, from 1984. ~TW