Restored
I Be Done Been Was is
I Be Done Been Was Is
A 4K restoration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “I Be Done Been Was Is” makes this unique film available to the public. The film chronicles four black women comedians as they pursue careers in a male dominated entertainment field.
Prior to restoration I Be Done Been Was Is exhibited to an enthusiastic sell out audience at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Word spread and it was screened again due to high command.
The film features Marsha Warfield of Night Court fame and Rhonda Hasome who has found a new online audience. Alice Arthur and Jane Galvin Lewis, both deceased, are also featured. The four women offer various perspectives that are still relevant today concerning race, gender and the politics of entertainment.
I Be Done Been Was Is, was produced during the height of the comedy club era when gaining a spot on stage may launch careers. The women discuss the politics of the comedy club, gaining representation, and networking. Included in the film are historical segments which track the history of black women in comedy from the vaudeville circuit to Wanda Page and Jackie “Moms” Mabley.
The first release was in 1984 in 16mm. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting funded the film. It was broadcast on cable in New York and selected PBS stations. I Be Done Been Was Is exhibited in film festivals, museums and theaters.
Kiss Grandmama Goodbye
Restoration in progress
Kiss Grandmama Goodbye
A midwestern African-American community during the early 1960s provides the background for KISS GRANDMAMA GOODBYE as a ten-year-old girl, Gail, resolves the death of her good friend and mentor…Grandmama. Gail and her parents reside in a middle class African-American neighborhood, which is adjacent to an older, poorer neighborhood. Gail and Grandmama share a close relationship that has developed like that of two friends and Gail covets a private dream to reciprocate for all the things that her grandmother has done for her.
On a long weekend, her parents leave her with Grandmama while they attend a civil rights conference in a nearby city. Gail, alone, is forced not only to witness the death of her closest relative outside her parents, but endure the frustration of never being able to share her dream with her Grandmama. Coots, Grandmama’s companion and sometimes boyfriend, also has difficulty in resolving Grandmama’s death. The string of unbroken promises to her haunt him along with remembrances of his father’s death when he was a boy. Experience and the wisdom of age wins out when Coots is able to help Gail with her first-time loss through death.