The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is proud to host the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures President and Director Jacqueline Stewart, discussing Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 - 1971. She will be in conversation with Dr. Ellen Scott (UCLA) as they discuss researching, archiving and the cultural preservation of Black participation in American cinema.

Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971, is an exhibition currently showing at the Academy Museum, which explores the rich history of Black participation in US cinema from its beginnings to just beyond the civil rights movement. Both the exhibition and conversation seek to contextualize how the archiving and preservation of lost or forgotten films, filmmakers, and performers can enrich -- and challenge – the ways we think about Black history for a contemporary audience.

Jacqueline Stewart is the President and Director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She is on the faculty of the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago, where she founded the South Side Home Movie Project. A recipient of the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship she is also host of “Silent Sunday Nights” on Turner Classic Movies as well as the author of several books including Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity, and co-editor of L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema.

Professor Ellen C. Scott, Ph.D., focuses on the cultural meanings and reverberations of film in African American communities and, more broadly, the relationship of media to the struggle for racial justice and equality. She is currently working on two projects, one examining the history of slavery on the American screen and another on the history of Classical Hollywood-era Black women film critics.