CONVERSATIONS OF A SPIRITEDACTOR/LESLIE HARRIS DIRECTOR

At the end of Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.—independently produced and shot in 17 days—the audience is informed that they have just sat through “A Film Hollywood Dared Not Do.” This is true insofar as Hollywood has denied access to African-American women filmmakers, and Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. was directed, produced, and scripted by an African-American woman, Leslie Harris. Prior to its release, among the tens of thousands of films made in Hollywood across the decades, Euzhan Palcy’s A Dry White Season was the lone one directed by a black woman. This fact speaks volumes about racism and sexism in Hollywood and American history. ,, whose likable performance is the film’s sole saving grace), a spirited 17-year-old African American