A trunk, forgotten films and my mother’s pioneering legacy
Following the death of her filmmaker mother Kathleen, Nina Collins kept her largely forgotten work locked in a trunk for years, but opening it helped Nina deal with her grief.
Nina Collins’ mother Kathleen is a giant of African American cinema, as one of the first female black American directors her work, in particular her film Losing Ground, is essential viewing for any student of the genre. However it wasn’t always like this, for years her films, plays and short stories languished in obscurity. It was only when her daughter Nina, poured her own money into publishing, restoring and showing her mother’s works that their significance was appreciated more widely.
Nina had a fraught relationship with her mother, a childhood marked by divorce, mental illness and violence. And Nina’s unsettled life in many ways mirrored her mother’s. After her death Nina kept her mother’s papers locked away, it wasn’t until nearly 20 years later that she started to look through them, began to understand her mother better and build her legacy.
Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Julian Siddle
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo: Kathleen Collins and Ronald Gray on the set of Losing Ground. Credit: Courtesy of Milestone Films and Gary Bolling)
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Thu 24 Oct 2024 11:06GMTÂ鶹ԼÅÄ World Service
- Thu 24 Oct 2024 17:06GMTÂ鶹ԼÅÄ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Thu 24 Oct 2024 21:06GMTÂ鶹ԼÅÄ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Fri 25 Oct 2024 02:06GMTÂ鶹ԼÅÄ World Service
Contact Outlook
Info on how we might use your contribution on air
Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary
Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected