Alile Sharon Larkin

• Born — 6 May 1953 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Years Active — 1979–present • Birth Name — Sharon Larkin • Occupation — * Film director • producer • screenwriter • Education — University of Southern California (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (MFA)

Larkin was born in Chicago on May 6, 1953. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities in the Creative Writing program at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1975. Larkin was then enrolled as one of the original members of the Ethno-Communications program at UCLA, until it disbanded. Larkin then registered at UCLA's prestigious film school in the Motion Picture/Television Program, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1982. In 1991 Larkin graduated with a Master of Education degree from California State University in Los Angeles, and went on to become an educator for the next 25 years.

While at UCLA, Larkin directed two 16mm short films. Her first film The Kitchen (1975), tells the story of a Black woman's mental breakdown, and compares her life in a mental ward to that of someone in prison, looking at the pressures and discrimination she faced that brought about her mental undoing. Her next film, Your Children Come Back to You (1979), explores the issue of the assimilation of African Americans into a larger community. The film confronts issues of economic and social inequality, presenting them from a child's point of view. Your Children was followed by the film for which she is perhaps best known, A Different Image, which she completed in 1982. This film explores the complexities of a platonic relationship between a free-spirited young woman and the young man who is her best friend. A retrospective of her works, including a documentary on the making of "A Different Image," were set to screen on Friday, December 2, 2011, as part of a major film series, "L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema," part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980. After graduating from UCLA, Larkin produced a series of projects, including the children's story, Dredlocks and the Three Bears (1991), which has been called "an extremely playful and yet undeniably political" animated re-imagining of the story of Goldilocks with a Black female protagonist. Her upcoming project is a children's music DVD called 'Tie Dye', which is currently in production. Larkin is also a published writer. Her article "Black Women Filmmakers Defining Ourselves: Feminism in Our Own Voice" was published in 1988 in E. Deidre Pribram's Female Spectators: Looking at film and television, which was part of an informal 13-book series called "Questions for Feminism". Her screenplay for A Different Image (1982) was published in 1991 in a book of collected works from six different independent filmmakers, called Screenplays of the African American Experience. Along with other members of the L.A. Rebellion, Larkin is the subject of an upcoming documentary from director Zeinabu Irene Davis called Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA.

Films • Year — Title — Role(s) — Distributor — Screenings • 1975 — The Kitchen — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor • 1979 — Your Children Come Back to You — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor — Women Make Movies — 2011: L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema • 1982 — A Different Image — Director — Women Make Movies — 2011: L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema 2003: Los Angeles School Festival at UC Irvine 1982: Black Talkies on Parade Film Festival • 1984 — My Dream is to Marry an African Prince — Producer • 1986 — What Color is God? — Producer • 1987 — Miss Fluci Moses — Director • 1991 — Dreadlocks and the Three Bears — Director, Writer, Producer — 2011: L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema • 1998 — Mz Medusa — Director • 2000 — The Blessing Way — Cast