Looking for Langston
movie

Released October 31, 1989
Genres:
Overview
A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
Cast
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Ben Ellison
as
Alex
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Matthew Baidoo
as
Beauty
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Akim Mogaji
as
James
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John Wilson
as
Karl
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Dencil Williams
as
Marcus
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Guy Burgess
as
Dean

Dublin James Wahlberg
as
Carlos
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Harry Donaldson
as
Leatherboy

Jimmy Somerville
as
Angel

Langston Hughes
as
Self (archive footage)

Stuart Hall
as
British (voice)
Crew
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Trevor Mathison
as
Original Music Composer
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Ronald Bailey
as
Sound mixer
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Wayson Jones
as
Original Music Composer
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Derek Brown
as
Art Direction
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Nadine Marsh-Edwards
as
Producer
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Nina Kellgren
as
Director of Photography
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Robert Hargreaves
as
Editor
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Peter Spencer
as
Original Music Composer

Isaac Julien
as
Director

Isaac Julien
as
Screenplay