Robin Coste Lewis’ “Intimacy” will premiere at the Academy Museum on April 11. (photo courtesy of Amanda Schwengel and Hampshire College)

Join LACMA for a special evening featuring the West Coast premiere of Robin Coste Lewis’s moving-image and sound film, “Intimacy” on April 11 from 6 to 9 p.m. The movie merges images from her grandmother’s vernacular photo archive – images that depict the lives of Black families and friends spanning over a century – with Lewis’s voice reading of existentialist lyric poems that relocate Blackness within the history of the universe and human evolution.

The soundtrack, dedicated to Julie Mehretu, is an homage to the central roles Black people have played within a multitude of Diasporas across millennia. The images are also reproduced in      her new book of poetry, “To         the Realization of Perfect Helplessness,” published by Knopf. Mehretu and LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg director Michael Govan will join Coste Lewis in conversation about her new work.

Coste Lewis will have a pre-event book signing of ‘To               the Realization of Perfect Helplessness’ at 6 p.m. in the lobby of LACMA’s Resnick Pavilion.

The screening and talk takes place in person at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures starting at 7:30 pm. RSVP is required. For information, visit lacma.org/ event/photograph-screen.

Priority for the book signing is given to pre-sale book attendees. Pre-sale books are available at the LACMA Store online. After all LACMA Store online pre-sale attendees have had their books signed, the signing line will open in the order in which attendees arrive. Only copies purchased from the LACMA Store will be signed at the pre-event. Additional copies of “To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness” will be available for purchase on the day of the event at the pre-event signing until the end of the signing. If you purchase a book in the LACMA Store online but cannot attend the event, your copy will be signed and held for you at the LACMA Store in the Resnick Pavilion for pick-up.

The Resnick Pavilion is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd. The Academy Museum is located at 6067 Wilshire Blvd.