Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Taboo-breaking film classic about a white family shaken up when dear daughter wants to marry a black man. With Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
Joanna Drayton has met medical doctor John Prentice on holiday in Hawaii. They fall madly in love with each other and soon fly to Joanna’s parents in San Francisco to ask permission for their marriage. Joanna’s parents are wealthy and consider themselves broad-minded, but the fact that their daughter wants to marry a black man, a widower on top of that, is hard on them. The situation becomes even more complex when it turns out that John’s parents are not enthusiastic about the wedding plans either.
In 1967, the year GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER was released, interracial marriages were still banned in 17 US states. Moreover, film studios assumed that white moviegoers were not interested in films a with black protagonist. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER consigned that theory to the dustbin: the film became a major box office hit. The film also went down in history as the last film featuring the legendary film couple Hepburn-Tracy; Spencer Tracy died six months before the premiere.
Before the main film, we screen the short film:
Mother Tongue, Floris Ramaekers, 2021, 12'
A benefits claim appointment spins out of control when Candide, 23, borrows her sister’s baby and strangely pretends like it’s her own child. A suspicious Martijn, the caseworker, attempts to unravel her lies accusing Candide of fraud. But behind her charade lies an unexpected secret.