Chicago based filmmaker and
programmer Amir George and Los Angeles based curator Erin Christovale, are presenting
again a screening of short films they call Black
Radical Imagination, coming up this time around in Chicago.

According to George
and Christovale the notion of the “Black Radical Imagination stemmed from a series
of discussions around the boundaries and limitations that are historically
given to people of color in the realm of the cinematic”.

As a result
they created an international touring program of “visual shorts that delve into the
worlds of new media, video art, and experimental narrative. Focusing on new stories
within the Diaspora, each artist contributes their own vision of post-modern
society through the state of current black culture. An artistic movement and
school of thought, Black Radical imagination focuses on aesthetics of futurism,
surrealism, and the magnificent through the context of cinema”.

Now after
screenings in Los Angeles, Oakland,
Boston, Basel Switzerland, and other cities the series, along with a
dialogue with filmmakers, comes to Chicago on Thursday Feb. 27 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in
the Columbus Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus
Dr. from 6-8PM.

The films, which
will be screened at next week’s event are:

– The Baptist by Lewis Vaughn

A fallen spirit seeks
redemption after a life of compliance and misguidance. After being forcedinto
an afterlife state, he attempts to navigate through a vivid forest while a
mysterious creature taunts him.

– Black Magic at the White House by
Jeanette Elhers

In this video, Ehlers is
performing a voudon dance at the Marienborg—a residence with a strong
connection to the triangular trade that today plays an important role in
Denmark as the official residence of the country’s prime minister.

– Bliss by Jabari Zuberi

Bliss is a surrealist
sci-fi short about a man, Kahel, and his dependence on a technological drug
that reaches out to his subconscious mind. It is a visually driven, surreal
short drama focused around the technological drug, the effects it has on Kahel,
and the glimpse interactions of relationships formed because of his new-found
addiction.

– Black Bullets by Jeanette Elhers

In a poetic and
mesmerizing manner Black Bullets pays tribute to the act of revolt. Black
Bullets was filmed on The Citadel, a mountaintop fortress in Haiti built by king
Henri Christophe after the Revolution. The fortress itself has become a sign of
liberty and an icon of Haiti.

– Get the Bones from 88 Jones Because
She Also Eats Meat by Lauren Kelley

An aerial view of the
disposable nature of intimate relationships. This short, stop motion animation tale
scrutinizes the gestures that occur between an invisible librarian and a
capricious peacock—both are bookworms. Throughout this anti love story, the
familiar predator and prey narrative elements are liquefied when what seems
solid to a smitten protagonist cracks and falls apart.

– Moonrising by Sanford Biggers &
Terence Nance

The nose knows. We’ve
been overdosing on pop perfume, a heady arrangement of melody and bounce –
coddled by brightly colored choruses and whims of the Top Forty. Sometimes we
Earthlings are in need of a piece of meat caught between the wisdom teeth, just
to suck it loose for a savory taste of the unpretty. When tripping the light fantastic
gives way to a slew footed stomp – jut the butt and knees bent. Chicken wing
and Cheshire grin, a twisted tree through a piano and the
quilt-that-never-got-washed; plus a top hat with more than rabbits inside. Everybody
was Kung Fu fighting. And ninjas is crazy.

For more info
on the program and to keep up to date with future Black radical Imagination
film screenings you can go to their Facebook page HERE.

And here’s the new Black Radical Imagination trailer for 2014: