One of the long-overlooked gems of 1990s indie filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso has now been restored in 4K from The Criterion Collection, Janus Films, and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A poignant and vibrant look at the life of an art student as she deals with academia, friendship, romance, and death circling around her, every frame of the dazzling new restoration pops. Now set for a theatrical release kicking off at Film at Lincoln Center on March 17, the new trailer and poster have arrived.
“A lost treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/ romance,” reads the official synopsis. “Alarmed by the rate at which the young Black men around her are dying—indeed, “becoming extinct,” as she sees it—brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) attempts to preserve their existence in Polaroid snapshots, along the way forging a friendship with a woman in an abusive relationship (April Barnett), experiencing love and loss, and being drawn into the search for a serial killer who is terrorizing the city. Capturing the vibrant community spirit of Oakland in the nineties, Smith crafts both a rare cinematic celebration of Black female creativity and a moving elegy for a generation of lost African American men.”
See the trailer and poster by Krista Franklin below.
Drylongso opens on March 17 at Film at Lincoln Center and will expand.