KATHLEEN COLLINS PERRYMAN

 

When we talk about the pioneers of Independent, Black Cinema, it is a pleasure to highlight the work of Kathleen Collins-Prettyman. Collins is best known for her film Losing Ground.

 

This filmmaker graduated from Skidmore College in 1963 and the Paris-Sorbonne University in 1966 with an MA in French literature and cinema. She joined the faculty of City College at the City University of New York (CUNY) as a professor of film history and screenwriting.  Collins adapted her one of her screenplays from a Henry Roth short story. That film became The Cruz Brothers and Mrs. Malloy, which won First Prize at the Sinking Creek Film Festival.

 

Collins wrote and directed the 1982 film, Losing Ground, (starring Seret Scott, Bill Gunn, and Duane Jones), which won First Prize at the Figueroa International Film Festival in Portugal and garnered much international acclaim. Themes frequently explored in Collins' work are issues of marital malaise, male dominance and impotence, freedom of expression and intellectual pursuit, and her protagonists are cited as "typically self-reflective women who move from a state of subjugation to empowerment."

 

Many women, including Eloise Gist preceeded Collins as a film director. She stood out among her peers though and achieved aclaim in her short life. She died September 18, 1988 at age 46.