SNAPSHOT is a 12 month long season launching in April 2024 which explores the SNAPSHOTS of Black Girlhood found in cinema. The season will include re-releases, archive work and new releases.
By mixing contemporary with the classics, as T A P E has done many times before, this season will be an excellent deep dive into films by Black women across the decades. SNAPSHOT aims to engage a new audience for the films of Black female directors through activities, a live community built exhibition and social media material and assets. The tour includes films that offer a snapshot of a time and place, challenging our misconceptions of the cinema canon through their powerful depictions of Black, female led stories.
DRYLONGSO (dir: Cauleen Smith)
Pica Sullivan is a young art student who lives with her mother and grandmother in Oakland. She works a nighttime job papering walls, which puts her safety at risk. As an outlet for her dysfunctional home life, she photographs young African American men with the belief they are an "endangered species" who may one day become extinct.
Her night job affects her attendance in photography class, which she is also struggling with because she uses a Polaroid for her photos and not the requisite 35 mm camera. One night, Pica meets Tobi, a young woman who is left beaten on a street curb by her abusive boyfriend.
Pica learns Tobi disguises herself as a man to protect herself from violence. Pica and Tobi bond over their shared fears for their safety. Pica also becomes enmeshed in news reports of the "Westside Slasher", a serial killer who is claiming victims in the neighborhood, with some of the young men she has photographed being amongst the victims.