Looking for Langston
Looking for Langston

Looking for Langston

October 31, 198945 min5.0EN
Drama

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.

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Cast

Ben Ellison
Ben EllisonAlex
Matthew Baidoo
Matthew BaidooBeauty
Akim Mogaji
Akim MogajiJames
John Wilson
John WilsonKarl
Dencil Williams
Dencil WilliamsMarcus
Guy Burgess
Guy BurgessDean
Dublin James Wahlberg
Dublin James WahlbergCarlos
Harry Donaldson
Harry DonaldsonLeatherboy
Jimmy Somerville
Jimmy SomervilleAngel
Langston Hughes
Langston HughesHimself (archive footage)