Shadows

‘Shadows’ was a vanguard work of the independent American cinema, a bittersweet comedy centred on three African-American outsiders - Lelia and his two jazz-musicians brothers living in Greenwich Village - two of whom pass for white and all are part of the late fifties ‘lost generation’. We follow Lelia through three brief romantic involvements. Although the film was recognised at the time for its treatment of race, Cassavetes saw this as incidental to the wider question of identity. His special commitment to expression through performance and a concomitant openness of form give his films a rough, uninflected, anecdotal quality (a form of ‘fictional cinema
verite’). ‘Shadows’, like other Cassavetes’ films was fully scripted despite the reference in the end title to the film as ‘an improvisation’.
Cast includes Lelia Goldoni, Ben Carruthers, Hugh Hurd.