Detroit Film Theatre

The DFT celebrates the renowned Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène with screenings of his first feature film, a twenty-minute short, and a documentary about the man widely considered the father of sub-Saharan African cinema.

Black Girl (La Noire de...) (left), the 1965 film that marked Sembène's debut as a director of features, tells the story of a young Senegalese maid's forced exile when her white employers want to use her as a servant at their home in the south of France. Also playing is Sembène's 1963 Borom Sarret, a short, vivid portrait of a Dakar cart driver's daily struggle for survival. The two films can be seen for two weekends beginning Friday, August 12.

The documentary Sembène! (left), showing Saturday, August 13, follows the former dockworker who transformed himself into a fearless spokesman for the marginalized, becoming a hero to millions.

Norman Lear is arguably the most influential creator, writer, and producer in the history of television. His legendary 1970s shows--All In the Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons--which helped to shift the national consciousness by injecting humanism into sociopolitical debates on race, class, creed, and feminism. He's still going strong at 93 years of age as can be seen in the documentary Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, directed by Rachel Grady and Michigan native Heidi Ewing. Ewing introduces the film on Friday, August 5, and holds a question-and-answer session with the audience after the screening.

For more DFT information, including dates and times, or to purchase tickets, click here.

Awesome Fun

The museum's Detroit Institute of Awesome weekends get even more so later this month with the introduction of art games for use in the galleries as a means of encouraging family engagement with the art on the walls and each other.

The games range from simple matching activities for the youngest visitors to a fill-in-the-blanks Mad-Libs style story telling exercise, both requiring only a pencil and paper and can be used in any gallery. And if you ever played a game of car bingo on long trips, the game in the special exhibition The Open Road will be a drive down memory lane to share with your kids. Look for art carts, placed in strategic public spaces, to pick up a game.

Play with your food on Saturday, August 6, and Sunday, August 7, in the Interstate Arts production of that name (left) which mixes live performers with puppets of all sizes to tell humorous stories of fact and fantasy about Detroit gardens, food justice, and nutrition. The performance is at 2 p.m. both days.

90-Second Newbery Film Festival: A Wrinkle In Time

The DFT Animation Club features the work of young filmmakers in selections from the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival on Saturday and Sunday, August 27 and 28, at 2 p.m. This annual video contest invites kids to create movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery Award winning books in about ninety seconds. In past years, winners have crafted hilarious, weird, impressive, and always amazing mini-films, including a James Bond version of Ramona and Her Father and a zombie apocalypse version of Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Awesome activities are free with museum admission, except for the Animation Club screenings, which are free for members and $5 for the general public.

Every DIA Awesome weekend includes family-friendly guided tours, art-making workshops and, on Sundays, drawing in the galleries.

Winning Design

The DIA's popular interactive dining table and two other high-tech interpretive projects have been named among the most influential exhibit designs this century, by the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD), a multidisciplinary group of professionals who plan, design, and build environments that communicate with audiences in unexpected ways. The awards are given to designs that showed significant innovation and inspiration, as well as raising the bar for exhibit design.

The group cited the table in the third floor Fashionable Living gallery (left, above) for bringing the museum's eighteenth-century decorative art holdings to life and enabling visitors to "feel they are participating as three courses of historically accurate food are 'served' using porcelain and silver pieces from the collection."

Three digital books were singled out for giving visitors the ability to "flip" through the pages of an Egyptian Book of the Dead, a sixteenth-century Book of Hours, and a pictorial guide of American home interiors dating from 1883. The displays provide translations and interpretive information about the books.

Also praised was the three-minute animated film Antiquities Silhouette (left, below), showing continuously in the Greek and Roman ancient art galleries for its depiction of the mixing and serving of wine using vessels similar to those on view while also explaining the purposes behind their various shapes.

The DIA worked with the design firm Pentagram on these interpretive projects.

News and Notes

Fash Bash
Tickets are still available for the Thursday, August 11 Lincoln Black Label After Party at this year's Fash Bash®, the DIA's annual summer celebration of fashion and art. The After Party beings at 8:30 p.m. with drinks, dancing, and late night bites under the stars. The event is one of the DIA's signature fundraisers and the sponsoring Founders Junior Council has raised more than $4 million for the DIA, not including their recent $1 million gift mentioned in the Director's column above. Click here or call the DIA Ticket Office at 313.833.4005 to purchase tickets.

In the Museum Shop
Form meets function in this award-winning ScoopTHAT! ice-cream scoop and SpreadTHAT! butter spreader. The utensils transfer heat from your hand to the scoop or spreader edge turning the cold butter or frozen ice-cream a more servable consistency. Now you can easily dish up large, perfectly rounded scoops of your favorite ice cream straight from the freezer. Explore the selection of this summer's essential design products in the Museum Shop and online.

Yoga and Zumba on the Lawn
In celebration of the tenth annual ARISE Detroit Neighborhoods Day, the DIA is hosting back-to-back yoga and Zumba sessions on the museum's north lawn on Saturday, August 6.

At 10 a.m., instructors from the Detroit Yoga Lab lead an hour of slow flow yoga with music, with moves for stretching and strengthening. All levels of experience are welcome. Don't forget your yoga mat, water bottle, and sun screen.

Following yoga, Zumba instructor Yvonne Simpson directs a full-body, heart-pounding, sweat-inducing workout to Latin and international music beginning at 11 a.m. No prior dance or fitness experience required and beginners are welcome.

Activities are for those 18 years of age and older. In the event of inclement weather, events will be held in Rivera Court.

Inside|Out
The DIA's popular Inside|Out installations, featuring reproductions of museum masterpieces, have taken up new residences for the months of August, September, and October. The nine communities welcoming the works of art are Belleville, Beverly Hills, Chesterfield Township, Detroit's Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood, the city's East English Village, Morningside, and Cornerstone Village areas, Lake Orion, Oxford, River Rough, and Romeo.

Downloadable maps are available at dia.org/insideout. Social media users can follow Inside|Out updates and share their Inside|Out experiences on Facebook, Instagram (@DIADetroit #DIAInsideOut) and Twitter (@DIADetroit #DIAInsideOut).