The Fits
- This is a past program
Presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series Beyond Barbie. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.
Grace (2024)
As 16-year-old Grace prepares for baptism in the 1950s rural South, unexpected feelings surface. Written and directed by Natalie Jasmine Harris, this Black queer Southern Gothic short explores the tension between faith, identity and coming-of-age. Its rich visuals blend pastoral landscapes with the double entendre of Grace’s shifting perspective. Referencing Daughters of the Dust, Eve’s Bayou, The Color Purple and Their Eyes Were Watching God, Grace offers a poignant reimagining of self-discovery and tradition.
DCP, color, 14 min. Director/Screenwriter: Natalie Jasmine Harris. With: Jordan Rayanna Wells, Alexis Cofield, Mikayla LaShae Bartholomew, C L Simpson, JeVon Blackwell. Watch the trailer:
The Fits (2015)
11-year-old Toni (Royalty Hightower) trains in a boxing gym until the neighboring dance team’s fierce energy draws her in. Anna Rose Holmer’s Venice Film Festival-premiering debut blends adolescence’s mysteries with an eerie outbreak of seizure-like “fits” among the dancers. Spare yet hypnotic, the film is a vibrant ode to Black girlhood and African American dance traditions.
DCP, color, 72 min. Director: Anna Rose Holmer. Screenwriter: Saela Davis, Anna Rose Holmer. With: Royalty Hightower, Alexis Neblett, Da'Sean Minor, Lauren Gibson, Makyla Burnam.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
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