Horror Noire
New golden age of African American horror
Friday, Oct. 18, 2019
7 p.m. - Conversation with director Xavier Burgin
Page Hall, UAlbany downtown campus
135 Western Avenue, Albany
Free and open to the public
(United States, 2019, not rated, 83 minutes, English)
Film historian Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman argues that Hollywood is beginning a new “golden age for black horror films.” HORROR NOIRE, a documentary based on Coleman’s same-titled book, features interviews with leading figures of Black horror cinema, including Jordan Peele (GET OUT), Tony Todd (CANDYMAN), and Tina Mabry (MISSISSIPPI DAMNED).
The film also explores the history of the genre, shedding new light on how African American characters and creators were used — and misused — across a century of cinema. HORROR NOIRE is the very first documentary produced by AMC Networks’ new horror video streaming service, Shudder.

Classic Film Series


Twenty-something director Xavier Burgin is an Emmy nominated filmmaker, Sundance Lab Fellow, HBO Finalist, and a director on the Emmy nominated series, Giants, produced by Issa Rae Presents.
Presented in conjunction with the 400 Years of Inequality Commemoration, part of a national observance of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to be sold into bondage in North America in 1619 at Jamestown, with support provided by the Diversity Transformation Fund through UAlbany’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
About The Classic Film Series
The NYS Writers Institute’s Classic Film Series, presented with support from Marc Guggenheim, UAlbany Class of ‘92, features screenings of domestic and international films of distinction and film festivals devoted to the work of particular directors, producers, or screenwriters.
The series has included rare films culled from archives and private collections, pre-release screenings from major studios, contemporary international offerings, as well as classics made in the U.S. The Institute will launch the Albany Film Festival in March 2020.
Some of the filmmakers and screenwriters who have visited the Institute have included Hal Ashby, Hector Babenco, Costa-Gavras, Tomas Gutierrez-Alea, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, Neil Jordan, Spike Lee, Albert Mayseles, Gordon Parks, Sr., Raoul Peck, D.A. Pennebacker and Chris Hegedus, Bob Rafelson, Phil Alden Robinson, Wallace Shawn, Ron Shelton, Christine Vachon, Agnes Varda, and Robert Wise, and Doug Wright.
