Film Screening
“AMERICAN PROMISE” at Anthology Film Archives
In conjunction with the exhibition Anonymous Was A Woman: The First 25 Years
April 1, 2025–July 19, 2025
As a cinematic sidebar to Anonymous Was A Woman: The First 25 Years, Anthology Film Archives continues this film series throughout May, showcasing moving-image work by selected AWAW-awarded artists. Like the exhibition at the Grey, these screenings celebrate the transformative impact women artists have made on contemporary art and film since the award’s founding in 1996.
AMERICAN PROMISE
by Michèle Stephenson (AWAW 2018) & Joe Brewster (Rada Studio)
2013, 135 min, DCP
Michèle Stephenson in person!
“When filmmaking couple Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s 5-year-old son Idris and his best friend, Seun, both African-American, are accepted into the highly prestigious and almost exclusively white Dalton School, the proud parents embark on an amazingly ambitious project to document the two boys’ entire educations. Spanning 13 years, the resulting film offers a coming-of-age story rivaled perhaps only by Michael Apted’s UP series in scope. AMERICAN PROMISE is compelling both for its intimate focus on the lives of these middle-class families and in what it has to say about the struggle for identity of even the most talented African-American boys in a society that still often fears and dismisses them.” –Jennifer Dworkin, FILM COMMENT
Purchase tickets in advance on Anthology’s website; tickets are also available at Anthology’s box office.
