Collection ID: COL 19
Printable View Printable View

Collection context

Summary

Creator:
Davis, Bridgett M.
Abstract:
The Bridgett Davis Naked Acts collection focuses on Davis's activities as a filmmaker from 1994 through 2009. The collection comprises production materials, film elements, promotional materials, and press coverage related to the film and Davis's role in its creation.
Extent:
1 Box, 1 Videocassette, 16 Videocassettes, 26 film reels, 6 film reels, and 2 Posters
Language:
Materials are predominantly in English and should be assumed to be in English unless otherwise indicated.
Preferred citation:

[item], Bridgette Davis Naked acts Collection, Special Collection COL 19, Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Background

Biographical / Historical:

Bridgett M. Davis is a novelist, essayist, independent filmmaker, educator, and curator. She grew up on the northwest side of Detroit and graduated with a BA in English from Spelman College in Atlanta and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.

Out of curiosity, Davis took a screenwriting course at New York University in 1991 and soon plunged into filmmaking. Rather than enrolling in film school, she learned production from New York City's non-profit media arts center. Her earlier works included a 20-minute black & white period film, Last Wish, and her 1992 short, Creative Detours (both produced by Third World Newsreel). The latter film premiered as part of the D'Ghetto Eyes film series and was presented with the 1993 FILMSEARCH award by the Brooklyn Arts Council (BACA). Davis also curated film projects for Baruch College, CUNY's Women of Color Network, and the non-profit I Have a Dream Foundation in Harlem.

In 1994 Davis, wrote, produced, and directed Naked Acts, a feature-length film which was distributed and marketed by Rob Fields through his company Kindred Spirit Productions. The synopsis circulated by Kindred Spirits Productions as part of the press kit summarized the film as follows:

"Naked Acts is an emotionally powerful drama about a newly svelte young actress and her journey towards accepting the body she once despised. Set within the demanding and revealing milieu of a low-budget film shoot, this story explores a black woman's feelings about her own sexuality, her own body-image and her own artistic passion."

In a letter to potential donors dated August 18, 1994, Davis explained part of her motivation for making the film by simply stating "I've grown sick and tired of never seeing black men and women portrayed in films who remind me of the black people I know and love. Finally, I decided to something about it."

Davis began work on the film in 1994 and the first screening took place at the Black Harvest International Film and Video Festival in Chicago in 1995. The theatrical premiere of Naked Acts was held at the historic Thalia Theater in Manhattan on September 25, 1998. Due to a large and enthusiastic response from audiences, the film ran for four weeks, breaking the theater's previous box office records. The film was screened at over two dozen film festivals in the US, Europe, Africa, Brazil, and Cape Verde and was later distributed on DVD in 2000 by MTI Home Video. More recently, it was screened at the Indiana University Cinema on September 29, 2014 in connection with a series of guest lectures by Renée Cox and Davis.

A number of the actors and actress in the film went on to act in and/or make additional films including Rodney Charles (Tears of the Sun, African Cowboy, On the Eightball), Ron C. Jones (Half Nelson, Sweet and Lowdown, He Got Game), and Jake-Ann Jones (Side Streets, Norma's Lament). Renée Cox continued to rise in her career as a successful photograph and mixed media artist.

Despite its success with audiences, Davis found that the film's lack of major stars and awards earned it a lukewarm reception from major distributors, forcing Davis to handle much of the promotion and distribution work herself. As of 2014, Naked acts was Davis's last film. Although there are references in the late '90s to another feature film project by Davis called Abbey's Road, but this doesn't appear to have passed the development stage. Davis did, however, serve on the selection committees for film and screenplay competitions hosted by the New York Council of the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Independent Feature Project.

During her early career, Davis's was a newspaper reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlanta Journal & Constitution and her short fiction was included in In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers (1992). Since Naked Acts she has returned the focus of her energy to writing and her reviews and essays have been published in The Washington Post, Essence, O, Oprah Magazine, TheRoot.com, The Chicago Tribune, New York Newsday, The Independent, Columbia Journalism Review, Black Film Review, Wall Street Journal and The Detroit Free Press. Davis has published two novels and recently completed a third. Shifting through Neutral was released by Amistad/Harper Collins in 2004 and was the finalist for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award, a Quarterly Black Review bestseller, and the recipient of the Go on Girl! Book Club's 2005 New Author of the Year. Into the Go-Slow was released by the Feminist Press at CUNY in September 2014. Davis has also recently completed a third novel, Lagos, which is set in 1980s Nigeria and based on her experiences with African media women.

In addition to her activities as a writer, Davis is the book editor of the Bold as Love Magazine black culture site, founder and curator of the Sundays @ Brooklyn reading series, and a founding member of ringShout, a resource "dedicated to recognizing, reclaiming and celebrating excellence in contemporary literary fiction and nonfiction by black writers in the United States."

She continues to serve as a Professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY, where she teaches creative writing and journalism courses within the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences including journalistic criticism and fiction and screenwriting workshops. She also serves as the director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program and as the co-academic director of the Faculty Fellowship Publication Program where she "facilitates writing workshops for female and minority faculty seeking to complete and publish their creative works." In 2007, she was the recipient of the Excellence in Education Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists

Scope and Content:

The Bridgett Davis Naked Acts collection focuses on Davis's activities as filmmaker from 1994 through 2009. The collection comprises production materials, film elements, promotional materials, and press coverage related to the film and Davis's role in its creation. The production materials include Davis's journal entries about the production, scripts, film elements, and photographs of the cast and crew on set. The film elements include the 35 mm master positives, mono audio tracks, interpositives, and internegatives used in the creation of the film. The promotional materials include descriptive materials about the film used for promotional and fundraising purposes, advertisements, post cards, and press releases distributed for the 1998 theatrical release and 10th anniversary festival screenings in 2008 and 2009 as well programs for additional festival screenings that took place between 1995 and 1999. The majority of these latter programs take the form of photocopied excerpts directly referencing Davis's participation or the screening of Naked acts as opposed to the original program in full. Press coverage includes news articles and film reviews related to Davis and Naked Acts published in a wide range of sources predominantly between 1994 and 1998. The majority of these pieces are by female authors and discuss the treatment of black female sexuality, stereotypes, and body image in film and/or Davis's success as a screenwriter and filmmaker.

Acquisition information:
Gift donated by Bridgett Davis in March 2013.
Processing information:

Processed by Ardea Smith.

Completed in 2013.

Arrangement:

Arranged in three series:

  1. Series 1. Production materials, 1994-1996
  2. Series 2. Promotional materials, 1991-2009
  3. Series 3. Press coverage of Naked Acts and Bridgett Davis, 1994-approximately 2005
Physical facet:
U-Matic, VHS, 35 mm, and Super 16 mm
Dimensions:
21.75 x 17 in.
General note:

In 2022, the Black Film Center/Archive (BFC/A) transitioned to its current name, the Black Film Center & Archive (BFCA). This finding aid was created under the organizational name Black Film Center/Archive. Upon this organizational name change, all previous references to the BFC/A were updated in this finding aid to match the current name, Black Film Center & Archive.

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

This collection is open to the public. Audiovisual materials may require the creation of reference copies. If you are interested in viewing the contents of the films or videocassettes in this collection, please contact the BFCA staff well in advance of your visit for details.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

All requests for copying and publishing materials must be submitted in writing to the BFCA archivist. Some reproduction/publication requests may also require the written permission of the donor, interviewer, interviewees, and/or performers.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[item], Bridgette Davis Naked acts Collection, Special Collection COL 19, Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.

CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library, Room 044
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7000, United States
CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
CONTACT:
812-855-6041
bfca@indiana.edu