The arts—from the visual and fine arts to music and literary arts—have always served to reflect and amplify culture and community. The arts can also serve as a way of giving voice to the marginalized, a function that is sometimes met with outrage, suppression, censorship, and even destruction. NOMA’s Arts in Peril Film Series examines fundamental questions about the production of art and who decides what art is and can be in modern societies.

Films in this series will be screened during Friday Nights at NOMA programming and on select Saturday afternoons. The selections include:

• Saturday, September 2 (2 p.m.): Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)
• Friday, September 8 (7 p.m.): F for Fake (1973)
• Saturday, September 9 (2 p.m.): The Rape of Europa (2006)
• Friday, September 15 (7 p.m.): Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2015)
• Saturday, September 23 (2 p.m.): Exit through the Gift Shop (2010)
• Friday, Sept. 29 (7 p.m.): Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2013)

ABOUT THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE

The first documentary to explore the American family photo album through the eyes of black photographers, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history to discover images that have been suppressed, forgotten, and lost. From slavery to the present, these extraordinary images unveil a world confronting the difficult edges of citizenship and what it means to be human. (2015 | 1 hour, 32 minutes)

Watch the trailer: