Losing Ground

Directed by Kathleen Collins

Choose a Format
Release Year: 1982
Running time: 86
Country: U.S.
Language: English
Genres: Comedy, Drama
$19.99 - Classroom Rights
MSRP: $39.99
$349.00 - With PPR
$499.00 - With DSL
$499.00 - With DSL and PPR
MSRP: $599.00
Screening Request
Directed by: Kathleen Collins

The inimitable Kathleen Collins's second film tells the story of two remarkable people, married and hurtling toward a crossroads in their lives: Sara Rogers, a Black professor of philosophy, is embarking on an intellectual quest just as her painter husband, Victor, sets off on an exploration of joy. Victor decides to rent a country house away from the city, but the couple’s summer idyll becomes complicated by his involvement with a younger model. One of the very first fictional features by an African-American woman, LOSING GROUND remains a stunning and powerful work of art for being a funny, brilliant, and personal member of indie cinema canon.

Restoration by Yale Film Archive, The Film Foundation, and Milestone Films, supervised by Brian Meacham, with transfer supervised by Ronald K. Gray. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Lab: Colorlab. Audio Restoration: Audio Mechanics. Thank you to Nina Collins, Terri Francis, Michael Lloyd, Michael Minard, John Polito, and AJ Rohner. A Milestone and Kino Lorber release.

Reviews

"Revelatory. A Black film unlike any other in its time."

- Jourdain Searles, Hyperallergic
 

"Passionate, buoyant, alive. There are moments in Losing Ground... that are so rich in mood, texture, and longing I can’t catch my breath."

- Angelica Jade Bastién, New York Magazine
 

"Delightfully irreverent. Exemplifies how Black women on both sides of the camera experiment with possibility, complexity, and ambiguity to challenge the frame."

- Yasmina Price, The New York Review
 

“More than just a cinematic feast; it’s a revelation… A nearly lost masterwork.”

- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
 

Beautifully restored by the indispensable Milestone Films… Collins’s movie ranks as one of the best about a marriage between two ambitious members of the creative class defined by a nimble élan and piercing wit.”

- Melissa Anderson, 4Columns
 

Trailer Embed Code

Download Trailer