Porgy and Bess is a 1959 American musical film directed by Otto Preminger. It is based on the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Ira Gershwin. Porgy and Bess was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, and featured an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time.
In 2011, Preminger’s Porgy and Bess, which starred Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge, was inducted into the National Film Registry.
In English, no subtitles, 138 mins. The film screening is a part of the American Center’s Black History Month film program.
