The only feature film by playwright and filmmaker Kathleen Collins and one of the first to be directed by an African-American woman, the 1982 drama Losing Ground is an independent drama that explores a different side of black life in America. Sara Rogers (Seret Scott) is a professor of philosophy at a New York City college, and her husband Victor (Bill Gunn) is a painter looking for a new direction. When he decides to rent a summer home outside of the city she has no say in the matter, a sign that things are not hunky dory in their marriage. Sara lives a life revolving around ideas and scholarship while Victor is all about aesthetics and expression. As Sara studies the origins of ecstasy in religion and art, she realizes that she has very little of it in her own life and impulsively agrees to act in a student film, where she explores another side of herself. A powerful portrait of committed professionals facing the limits of defining themselves through what they do instead of who they are, Losing Ground is a film about relationships and self-knowledge, with a sense of sexual politics that is as sophisticated as its personal odysseys. Collins, who was an intelligent, insightful, and nuanced filmmaker, died in 1988 at the age of 46, and her film never received any real distribution until Milestone Films restored and revived it. Bowing on home video in DVD and Blu-ray editions, extras include audio commentary, new and archival interviews, and Collins's shorter 1980 drama The Crux Brothers and Miss Malloy. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Losing Ground
Milestone/Oscilloscope, 2 discs, 86 min., not rated, DVD: $34.95, Blu-ray: $39.95 Volume 31, Issue 4
Losing Ground
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