Slideshow
ISLAND IN THE SUN
12:50 5:40*
Friday, January 31
*5:40 show introduced by Donald Bogle, BLACK WOMEN festival programmer and author of Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography.
(1957, Robert Rossen) Interracial love and politics in the tropics: the first Hollywood movie to romantically pair (albeit timidly) Black and white stars – Harry Belafonte with Joan Fontaine, and Dorothy Dandridge (in her first role since Carmen Jones) with John Justin. Instantly controversial and hotly covered by the press, it generated boycotts and violence in the South, with the South Carolina legislature threatening to fine any theater $5,000 that dared to show it. Dandridge had to fight the studio to let Justin say he loved her. With Joan Collins as a socialite who’s surprised to be told she’s part “Negress.” With James Mason. 35mm. Approx. 119 min.