Once again,
as they have done all over the U.S.and in Europe, Chicago based filmmaker and
programmer Amir George and Los Angeles based curator Erin Christovale, are
presenting a screening of short films they call Black Radical Imagination, and it’s happening this time in New York City this weekend.
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 a successful
tour last year, including screening in over 12 cities such as Los Angeles, Oakland, Boston, Basel
Switzerland, and Chicago among
others and even, as well garnering a feature in ARTFORUM’s Best of 2013, the series, along with a forum with
filmmakers, comes to New York City
at Cooper Union for two days, starting this Friday April 11th
through Saturday April 12th.
The program
will be the following:
FRIDAY
3:30PM-5:30PM
Black Radical Imagination (short film
program)
Films by Jeannette Elhers, Jabari
Zuberi, Terence Nance & Sanford Biggers, Lauren Kelley, Lewis Vaughn and a
special screening of Memory Room 451 by John Akomfrah and the Black Audio Film
Collective. (Pictured above) Followed
by a panel with curators and filmmakers
SATURDAY
2PM-4PM
Martine Syms is a cultural
entrepreneur based in Los Angeles and will be presenting her Mundane Futurist
Manifesto and MOST DAYS – a new audio work that takes the form of table read
for a science-fiction screenplay, with score by Neal Reinalda. The story
considers what an average day looks like for a young, black woman in 2050 Los
Angeles.
5:00PM-6:30PM
Jeannette Elhers is a video and
performance artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark whose works revolves around the
Danish slave trade in the colonial era. Jeanette Ehlers will be performing
“Whip It Good” – reenacting one of the most brutal punishment methods used
during slavery. In using the same method on a white canvas, she creates a
personal and simple, though contradictory, artistic act of striking back.
Sponsored by Alanna Lockward/Artlabour Archives and Ballhaus Naunynstrasse.
All the events
will take place in Frederick P. Rose
Auditorium, located at 41 Cooper Square, on Third Avenue between
6th and 7th streets.
Here’s the trailer
for this year’s program:
