Film Screening of Bessie

June 4

Film Screening of Bessie
In Collaboration with Avon On Tour

MoCA\CT and the Avon Theatre On Tour bring the magic of cinema to Westport.

As renovations continue at the nonprofit Avon Theatre Film Center in Stamford, MoCA\CT will bring the magic of cinema to Westport. Our partnership with our fellow nonprofit launches with the Emmy award-winning film Bessie (2015), which recounts the life story of legendary blues performer Bessie Smith. What makes seeing this film at MoCA\CT a uniquely memorable experience is its resonance with our current exhibition Art, Jazz & the Blues.

A towering likeness of Bessie Smith stands in the center of legendary Westport artist and musician Eric von Schmidt’s Blues Women (1996), one of the monumental group portraits of blues legends anchoring our current exhibition, Art, Jazz + the Blues. On view through June 7, this collaborative presentation with the Westport Public Art Collections (WestPAC) highlights the dynamic interplay between visual art and African American musical traditions. The film captures the 1920s era and musical landscape that inspired Blues Women.

HBO’s Bessie stars Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith, the “Empress of the Blues.” Directed by Dee Rees, the film follows Smith’s rise from a young vaudeville performer in the 1920s to one of the most successful and influential recording artists of her time. It’s an honest look at her fierce independence, her complicated life offstage, and the incredible voice that reshaped American