A Different Image

A Different Image is a 1982 American film directed, written, and edited by Alile Sharon Larkin that explores body image and societal beauty standards through the eyes of a young Black woman on a journey towards self-worth.

Summary
Alana (Margot Saxton-Federlla), an art student, explores sexuality, Western ideals of beauty, and her own self-worth in 1980's Los Angeles. Vincent (Adisa Anderson), her long-time friend, feels pressure to turn their platonic relationship into a sexual one which further sparks Alana's frustration with western, patriarchal beauty standards and gender norms.

Cast

 * Margòt Saxton-Federella as Alana
 * Michael Adisa Anderson as Vincent

Production
Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin is a 1989 documentary about the making of A Different Image

Reception
The film is considered as a groundbreaking foray into a realistic character portrait of a young Black woman. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times heralded it as "...extraordinary, a fresh and clear expression of an acute sensibility. "

Awards and recognition

 * First Prize, Black American Cinema Society Award
 * Official Selection, London Black Film Festival
 * Best Production of 1981, Black Filmmaker Foundation
 * Runner Up, Best Short Film, Filmex
 * Official Selection, the 2011 L. A. Rebellion: Creating New Cinema

Screenings

 * UCLA's L.A. Rebellion Film Series, UCLA Hammer Museum, 2011
 * Madeline Anderson Shorts, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2013
 * Afterimage: Madeline Anderson, Berkeley Art Museum, 2016
 * One Way or Another: Black Women's Cinema, 1970–1991, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2017

Preservation
The Black Film Center/Archive preserved A Different Image, which included 16mm original color reversal A/B rolls and full-coat magnetic track elements. They produced a 16mm color internegative, a soundtrack negative, and two new 16mm projection prints.

The script of the film was published in a 1991 compilation of collected works called Screenplays of the African American Experience.