Looking for Langston

Looking for Langston

45 mins | Drama | Oct. 31, 1989

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.

Looking for Langston

45 mins | Drama | Oct. 31, 1989

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.
IMDb rating 6.7
Producers British Film Institute, Sankofa Film & Video
Original title Looking for Langston
Directors Isaac Julien
Writers Isaac Julien

Cast

Ben Ellison

as Alex

Matthew Baidoo

as Beauty

Akim Mogaji

as James

John Wilson

as Karl

Dencil Williams

as Marcus

Guy Burgess

as Dean

Dublin James

as Carlos

Harry Donaldson

as Leatherboy

Jimmy Somerville

as Angel

Langston Hughes

as Himself (archive footage)

Stuart Hall

as British voice (voice)