Review of Looking for Langston (1989) by Jason Y — 16 Oct 2005

[b]VHS[/b] First Viewing, 1 Julien film seen.

Langston Hughes was gay. Most of the writers from the "roaring 20s" Harlem Rennaisance were. History likes to leave out that fact. It's a notion coined as "historical erasure." Did you know that Walt Whitman was gay, too? Not that it matters in terms of prejudice, but in understanding a certain experience, this information is extremely important.

[i]Looking for Langston [/i]is a 45-minute visual poem and meditation on Langston Hughes. It's sort of hard to explain. I guess it is a visual representation of what a poem would look like. That's at least what I got from it.

I only watched this film because it was assigned for class, but it is the kind of film I would like to see in other situations. [i]Brother to Brother[/i], a film I watched over the summer, is pretty much the only one I can compare it to (sort of). So if you read up on [i]Looking for Langston[/i], but can't find a copy of it anywhere, you might want to go to Blockbuster and pick up a copy of [i]Brother to Brother[/i]. You'll get the same sort of education on the matter (it's just a lot less artsy).