As part of the BFI’s trailblazing Black Debutantes: A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors at BFI Southbank until 31 May, the 1996 indie gem Naked Acts by Bridgett M. Davis resurfaces with fresh relevance in a cinematic landscape still grappling with representation, gaze, and authorship. Curated by the formidable Rógan Graham, the season sets out to unearth the formative, often overlooked stories of Black womanhood as told by the women who lived them, loved them, and dared to frame them on their own terms.
A meta-style independent film, ahead of its time, Naked Acts unpacks the complex representation of the Black female body in popular cinema and media. It dares to confront and dismantle dominant narratives around Black womanhood, intimacy, and agency, offering instead a raw, thoughtful portrait of self-examination and empowerment.
Through an intimate and emotionally layered storyline, the film follows the protagonist Cicely, a young actress at a pivotal crossroads in both her career and her personal life. Pressured to perform a nude scene, Cicely’s struggle goes beyond the professional — it becomes a confrontation with self-image, shame, and familial legacy. At its heart, the film weaves together the inherited trauma carried across three generations of Black female performers — from grandmother to mother to daughter — exploring how personal and professional pressures have shaped their identities, resilience, and sense of worth.
Bridgett M. Davis crafts a layered narrative that eschews sensationalism in favor of nuance, inviting audiences into a space where vulnerability and power co-exist. The camera in Naked Acts doesn’t simply observe the naked body; it interrogates it. It asks: Who gets to look? Who gets to be seen? And what does it mean to reclaim that sight when you’ve spent a lifetime being distorted by it?
Set in 1990s New York and grounded in a richly textured indie aesthetic, the film navigates the fault lines of Black femininity and performative expectations with remarkable grace. It’s both a product of its time and a mirror to our present — the conversations it stirs about consent, representation, and creative autonomy resonate just as powerfully today.
Rógan Graham’s extended season introduction frames Naked Acts not only as an individual work of art but as part of a vital cinematic lineage. These early works by Black women directors, often self-funded and independently distributed, pushed boundaries with limited resources but infinite vision. By bringing these films back into public consciousness, Black Debutantes offers a necessary correction to the canon and a celebration of the women who laid its foundation.
In revisiting Naked Acts, we are reminded that the act of baring oneself — emotionally, physically, artistically — is rarely about exposure. For Davis and her heroine Cicely, it’s about agency. It’s about choosing how and why you are seen. And in that choice lies both defiance and liberation.
Special thanks to : BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX
