Introduced by Stephanye Watts
Suzanne, Suzanne
New 4K Restoration
This poignant documentary profiles a young Black woman—Billops’ niece Suzanne Browning—as she confronts a legacy of physical abuse and its role in her descent into substance abuse. Family remembrances reveal the truth behind her addiction: Suzanne and her mother were victims of domestic abuse at the hands of the family patriarch. Suzanne is compelled to understand her father's violence and her mother's passive complicity, who suffered at her husband's hands as well, as the keys to her own self-destruction. After years of silence, Suzanne and her mother are finally able to share their painful experiences with each other in an intensely moving moment of truth. (Camille Billops & James Hatch, USA, 1982, 25 min., b&w)
Followed by:
Finding Christa
New 2K Digitization
This startlingly personal documentary presents a moving yet unsentimental view of motherhood and adoption. It explores the feelings surrounding the reunion of a young woman with her birth mother twenty years after being given up for adoption. The reunion is between filmmaker Camille Billops and her own daughter, Christa. Facing the re-encounter with mixed emotions, Billops interrogates her family and friends as well as her own motivations. The result is an original and daring work that challenges social biases about adoption and offers new insight into mother-daughter relationships. (Camille Billops & James Hatch, USA, 1991, 59 min.)
A graduate of Clark Atlanta University, Stephanye Watts is the Community Engagement Coordinator for Historic Germantown, a partnership of 18 extraordinary historic houses, destinations, and museums preserving the history of Northwest Philadelphia.In 2017, Stephanye founded the Brooklyn-based Be Reel Black Cinema Club, a group dedicated to disrupting the myth that Black cinema is rare+inaccessible by supporting Black filmmakers, one monthly meet-up at a time. She was also recently elected to the board of the Arthouse Convergence, a national organization made up of indie film professionals and theater houses. Be Reel Black Cinema Club works to amplify Black filmmakers from across the diaspora telling our stories through indie, archival, and previously inaccessible films one monthly meetup at a time.
