Looking for Langston
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
12 people
Ben Ellison
Alex
Also in
Coming Out
Bergerac
Dublin James
Carlos
Matthew Baidoo
Beauty
No other roles listed
Akim Mogaji
James
Also in
Soldier Soldier
Men of the Month
John Wilson
Karl
Also in
The Attendant
Young Soul Rebels
Dencil Williams
Marcus
No other roles listed
Guy Burgess
Dean
Also in
Whitstable Pearl
Doctor Faustus
Dublin James Wahlberg
Carlos
Known for
Sorority Boys
100 Women
Harry Donaldson
Leatherboy
Also in
The Happy Lands
Liberty & Bash
Jimmy Somerville
Angel
Known for
Orlando
Langston Hughes
Self (archive footage)
Stuart Hall
British (voice)
Also in
The Stuart Hall Project
Redemption Song
Isaac Julien Director · Wayson Jones Composer Trevor Mathison Composer
United States release October 31, 1989 · Produced in United Kingdom · Production Sankofa Film & Video, British Film Institute
Production
BFI
Production
Sankofa Film & Video
Production
British Film Institute
Production
United Kingdom
Produced in
Languages
Original language
English
Spoken on screen
English
Release dates
United States · October 31, 1989
Theatrical
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Some details come from TheTVDB.