Charles Lofton

O Happy Day: The Early Days of Black Gay Liberation

The seminal short film O Happy Day imagines the early days of gay liberation for black gay men. Lofton juxtaposes images of black men from late 60s and early 70s films with images of Black Panther Party demonstrations, as a way of intentionally revising history. The soundtrack is punctuated by a 1970 quotation from Black Panther leader Huey Newton: "There's nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. Quite on the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary..." O Happy Day blurs the difference between the Black Power movement and the Gay Power movement, and instead focuses on the similarities between the two.

I Like Dreaming

A confession on the pleasures of cruising straight men.

Significant (Br)other

Erotic images of Black men with voice over text by Isaac Julien and Kobena Mercer question the objectification of the Black male image by white photographers.