In an unusual move, the Locarno Film Festival has replaced its Blake Edwards retrospective pencilled in for its 2019 edition (August 7-17), with a strand dedicated to black film.
The retrospective celebrating the career of the US director, whose films include Breakfast At Tiffany’s and The Pink Panther, was postponed at a request made in recent weeks by the Blake Edwards Estate in the US.
A spokesperson told Screen that the request from the estate was made due a “concurrence of situations”.
Locarno said it has no concrete plans at this stage to re-schedule the retrospective at a future festival, but ”reserves the right to propose when it will [be] most appropriate”.
The strand taking its place, entitled Black Light and previously slated for 2020, will showcase international black cinema of the 20th century from Europe, North America, the Caribbean and South America.
Writer, curator and international black cinema expert Greg de Cuir Jr will curate the Black Light retrospective, presented jointly with the Cinémathèque Suisse.
Lili Hinstin, the new artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival said of Black Light. “I am often asked the gender question in this remarkable period of #MeToo, but I am convinced that the fight against social domination must extend beyond the women’s struggle to include all people who do not match the norms of heterosexual white male supremacy.”
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