Film Details

This new nonfiction film brings to light the life and work of a remarkable, self-taught African-American artist who was born into slavery in rural Alabama in 1853 and witnessed the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, and the Great Migration before dying in 1949. A sharecropper most of his life, Bill Traylor eventually moved to Montgomery where, between 1939 and 1942, he drew or painted over 1000 pictures of the Black experience. (He was in his late 80s.) In 2018, Traylor’s work received a major exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art that garnered national attention. “An extraordinary artist…Traylor’s pictures stamp themselves on your eye and mind.” –Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker. “Shines a spotlight on a creative gift that was long ignored and marginalized” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. 75 min.

Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 4/16 thru at least 5/20 via the link below. Doing so supports the Cinematheque. Screening fee is $12 and you have five days to watch it.