Angela Davis Portrait of a Revolutionary (1972)

Director Yolande du Luart had been involved in Lettrist circles in France before decamping for California to study film at UCLA where her classmates included Charles Burnett and Haile Gerima During this time UCLA professor Angela Davis was a subject of increasing scrutiny after coming out as a Communist provoking the ire of administrators and governor Ronald Reagan Believing that Davis would be an ideal film subject du Luart immediately began making a documentary though she would ultimately return to France to complete the project after receiving unwanted attention from the FBI Over the course of events writes Nicole Brenez this appreciative and sensitive portrait of a politically engaged philosopher had been transformed into a call for the liberation of an imprisoned activist and an internationalist revolutionary manifesto Film at Lincoln Center