January 24 – May 9, 2009 All films shown at Intuit 756 N Milwaukee Avenue In conjunction the exhibition The Picture Tells the Story: The Drawings of Joseph E. Yoakum, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art will present an eight-week film series of early period African American ‘race’ movies from the 30’s and 40’s and circus films from the silent era to the early 1960’s. Yoakum, an African American, traveled the world as a billposter with five different circuses including Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the Ringling Brothers. Sergio Mims, the programmer and lecturer for the series, is a screenwriter and member of the Director’s Guild of America as well as a former lecturer at Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently he is the film/arts critic and contributing writer for Ebonyjet.com and N’Digo magazine. Mims is co-founder and co-programmer for the Gene Siskel Film Center’s annual Black Harvest Film Festival. $6 per film

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Saturday, January 24, 2pm Hallelujah! Release date: 1929 Director: King Vidor Running time: 110 minutes Black and white

One of the earliest sound films ever made. Director King Vidor’s landmark all-black cast film Hallelujah!, is a visually stunning and morally complex musical drama about sin and redemption set in the rural South with a knockout performance by the ill-fated Nina Mae McKinney, the first genuine sex symbol of the sound era.

Saturday, February 7, 2pm Circus of Horrors Release date: 1960 Director: Sidney Hayers Running time: 92 minutes Color

With a lurid plotline dealing with murder, betrayal and aberrant fetishes to match its lurid color scheme, Circus of Horrors is an off the wall, over the top twisted melodrama with strong suspense and horror sequences about a deranged plastic surgeon using a European traveling circus to hide from the law and to put to use his skills to give new faces and identities to disfigured scarred women on the run.

Saturday, February 21, 2pm Lying Lips Release date: 1938 Director: Oscar Michaeux Running time: 60 minutes Black and white

The pioneering black “race” film director Oscar Michaeux’s oddball murder mystery about the strange murder of a singer and her grieving boyfriend who turns sleuth to track down the killer’s identity.

Saturday, March 7, 2pm The Circus Release date: 1928 Director: Charlie Chaplin Running time: 69 minutes Black and white

Unjustly overlooked among Chaplin’s better known features such as The Gold Rush and City Lights, The Circus is a uproarious charming and at times quite poignant film. Chaplin’s “Tramp” character finds himself on the run from the police and becoming part of the circus. Falling in love with a trapeze artist, the movie climaxes with Chaplin in a hilarious and nerve racking high wire act while being attacked by a bunch of monkeys.

Saturday, March 21, 2pm Son of Ingagi Release date: 1940 Director: Richard Kahn Running time: 70 minutes Black and white

A genuine oddity being the only 'race’ film of the period that’s also a monster horror film. Son of Ingagi is a campy and loony movie dealing with a newlywed couple, Robert and Eleanor Lindsay. A wealthy old recluse wills her fortune and exceedingly-gloomy house to the pair but also harbors a shocking secret about the young bride’s father.

Saturday, April 4, 2pm Ring of Fear Release date: 1955 Director: James Edward Grant Running time: 88 minutes Color and Scope

One of the strangest films produced by a major studio during the 1950’s. Originally conceived as a mystery thriller, Spillane author Mickey Spillane plays himself while investigating a series of murders committed by a psychopath in Clyde Beatty’s circus. The film includes some terrific circus performance footage including Beatty himself performing his legendary, death defying caged lions act in several extraordinary scenes.

Saturday, April 18, 2pm Broken Strings Release date: 1940 Director: Bernard Ray Running time: 60 minutes Black and white

Perhaps one of finest and most assured 'race' films of the period, Clarence Muse wrote the screenplay and also stars in this film as Arthur Williams. Arthur, a handicapped classical violinist whose son, in need of money to pay for his father’s operation, enters a contest to the anger and bitter disappointment of his father. Arthur wants his son to follow his example and play the classics instead of that “demon” jazz. The final line by Muse, without question, will go down as one of the greatest movie lines ever.

Saturday, May 9, 2pm Freaks Release date: 1932 Director: Tod Browning Running time: 62 minutes Black and white

Shortly after its release, this film was withdrawn from circulation for 30 years and banned in the U.K. due to its controversial content and the outcry of protests received. Tod Browning’s extraordinary film is now considered his masterpiece and the unrivaled equal to other horror films of the period such as Frankenstein and Dracula. An overheated soap opera set in the communal world of sideshow circus freaks, the film is at once disturbing, horrific and yet strangely poignant. It asks the question, "Who are the real freaks; those who are the strange sideshow physical curiosities or the supposed “normal” ones?"