B*A*P*S in 35mm

In person: post-screening conversation with filmmakers Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross.

Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman is both a historical intervention and a witty, deeply personal coming-of-age story. Dunye stars as Cheryl, a young filmmaker in 1990s Philadelphia who is obsessed with uncovering the truth behind an enigmatic 1930s actress known only as “the Watermelon Woman.” With its playful yet pointed critique of race, sexuality, and media gatekeeping, the film reclaims space for Black queer women in cinema while questioning who gets to write history. Decades later, its impact endures—not just as a pioneering work, but as a vital reminder that visibility is always a battle fought in layers.

Palace Bryant (Diamond Stingily), a Black artist on the cusp of graduating from a prestigious MFA program, endures one final absurd day of microaggressions, pretentious critiques, and overwhelming expectations before embarking on a chaotic, drug-fueled odyssey. Martine Syms’s The African Desperate is a razor-sharp, satirical fever dream that dissects the contradictions of the contemporary art world, capturing the existential exhaustion of being both fetishized and dismissed within elite creative spaces, making it a hilarious yet unflinching meditation on race, class, and survival in the avant-garde.

Minhal Baig’s Hala is a quiet yet deeply resonant portrait of adolescence, identity, and cultural negotiation. Hala (Geraldine Viswanathan), a Pakistani American teenager, balances the expectations of her conservative Muslim family with the stirrings of independence and desire. As she navigates first love, literary aspirations, and family secrets, her journey unfolds with understated lyricism, capturing both the beauty and ache of self-discovery. Baig’s restrained storytelling and Viswanathan’s nuanced performance ensure the film lingers—not as a tale of rebellion, but as a meditation on the delicate, often painful process of forging one’s own path.

Based on A’Ziah-Monae “Zola” King’s viral Twitter thread, Zola follows a Detroit waitress (Taylour Paige) who embarks on a wild road trip to Florida with a free-spirited stripper (Riley Keough), only to find herself trapped in a dangerous underworld. A raw, kinetic exploration of personal freedom, self-discovery, and exploitation, Zola blends humor with digital-age detachment. With Janicza Bravo’s stylized direction, Zola pulses with jump-cut rhythms, eerie chimes of Twitter notifications, and a visual language that straddles neon-lit dreams and feverish reality. The film underscores the power of self-definition—showing that freedom is not just escape, but holding onto oneself in a chaotic world.

In person: post-screening conversation with filmmaker Nisha Ganatra, moderated by May Hong HaDuong, Director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Spike Lee’s Girl 6 follows an aspiring actress who, after struggling to find success, takes a job as a phone sex operator. The film resonates with the thematic and stylistic concerns of playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, known for her experimental narratives and sharp interrogation of Black womanhood. Her framework deepens the film’s engagement with identity, performance, and agency. Infused with Prince’s evocative soundtrack and shot with Lee’s signature vibrancy, Girl 6 interrogates the fine line between self-expression and exploitation in an industry that thrives on both.