Losing Ground, one of the first feature-length motion pictures directed by a Black American woman, tells the story of a Black female philosophy professor and her abstract painter husband drifting apart as they experience separate creative evolutions. It won first prize at the Figueroa International Film Festival in Portugal in 1982 but didn’t receive an official release until it was restored in 2015, long after director Kathleen Collins died from breast cancer in 1988.

This two-day, multi-site <a a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/events/site/95/40237320199640/losing-ground-40/">program</a> brings together luminary Black women filmmakers, scholars, and curators to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the path-breaking film, introduce new audiences to Collins’s innovative practice, and convene those long inspired by it. Explore the film’s themes, making, and legacy at CAAM on day two of the program with a panel featuring USC School of Cinematic Arts PhD candidate Alex Hack, UCSD professor of communication and documentary filmmaker Zeinabu irene Davis, Georgetown professor of African American studies and author LaMonda Horton-Stallings, USC professor A.E. Stevenson, and USC PhD student Adrienne Adams. Reception to follow.

Presented in partnership with USC