Looking for Langston

Looking for Langston — Plot

A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.

• Release date
• October 31, 1989
• Runtime
• 45 min
• Genres
• Drama
• Director
• Isaac Julien

Looking for Langston — Cast

B

Ben Ellison Alex

M

Matthew Baidoo Beauty

A

Akim Mogaji James

J

John Wilson Karl

D

Dencil Williams Marcus

G

Guy Burgess Dean Dublin James Wahlberg Carlos

H

Harry Donaldson Leatherboy