Imitation of Life

Part of our Douglas Sirk mini season, with Written on the Wind on 17 April.

Prior to our screening of Written on the Wind there will be a talk on Douglas Sirk in the studio (the talk is free to attend but must be booked).

Lora Meredith, a white single mother who dreams of being on Broadway, has a chance encounter with Annie Johnson, a black widow. Annie becomes the caretaker of Lora's daughter, Suzie, while Lora pursues her stage career. Both women deal with the difficulties of motherhood: Lora's thirst for fame threatens her relationship with Suzie, while Annie's light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane, struggles with her African-American identity.

'The film is a biting critique of American race relations in the Fifties and a complex study in contrasts and paradoxes' - Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle