Losing Ground (1982 film)
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Bill Gunn
Duane Jones
| Losing Ground | |
|---|---|
.jpg) 2015 poster | |
| Directed by | Kathleen Collins |
| Written by | Kathleen Collins |
| Produced by | Eleanor Charles |
| Starring | Seret Scott Bill Gunn Duane Jones |
| Cinematography | Ronald K. Gray |
| Edited by | Ronald K. Gray Kathleen Collins |
| Music by | Michael Minard |
| Distributed by | Milestone Film & Video |
Release date |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Spanish |
| Budget | $125,000 |
Losing Ground is a semiautobiographical[1] 1982 American drama film written and directed by Kathleen Collins, and starring Seret Scott, Bill Gunn and Duane Jones.[2] It is the first feature-length drama directed by an African-American woman[3] since the 1920s and won First Prize at the Figueira da Foz International Film Festival in Portugal.[4]
In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[5][6][7]
Sara Rogers is a well-loved African-American philosophy professor who teaches courses on logic. She is married to Victor, a successful African-American painter.[8] To celebrate the sale of one of his paintings to a museum, Victor decides to rent a house for the summer where he can focus on his art. Sara, however, is annoyed by his plan because she had hoped to spend the summer in the city researching a paper she is writing on ecstatic experiences. She knows that her access to books and resources will be limited in a small town and feels that Victor does not value her academic work as much as he values his own artistic pursuits. Nevertheless, after finding a house they both adore, she agrees to accompany him for the summer.
At the rented house, Victor becomes obsessed with painting local women, befriending one in particular—a Puerto Rican woman named Celia. Feeling jealous, Sara returns to the city for a few days to act in a student film after one of her students begs her to participate. During the filming, she meets Duke, the filmmaker's uncle, who plays her love interest in the movie. Duke is immediately attracted to her.
Sara brings Duke to the rented house, and Victor becomes visibly jealous of him. Victor’s jealousy intensifies when his friend and mentor, Carlos, begins flirting with Celia. One morning, after witnessing Victor sexually harassing Celia, Sara grows furious and demands that he stop his inappropriate behavior in front of her. Feeling overwhelmed, she leaves Victor and confides in her mother, expressing that she feels out of control and on shaky ground—a stark contrast to her usual steady and contemplative nature.
Returning to the city, Sara completes her final scenes for the film. Victor goes to find her and arrives just in time to watch her character shoot Duke’s character for being unfaithful to her.[9]
Cast
- Seret Scott as Sara Rogers
- Bill Gunn as Victor
- Duane Jones as Duke
- Billie Allen as Leila, Sara's Mother
- Gary Bolling as George
- Noberto Kerner as Carlos, Victor's friend
- Maritza Rivera as Celia
Production
Losing Ground was filmed in New York City and in Nyack, Piermont and Haverstraw in Rockland County. The film had a budget of $125,000.[10]