Anyone who is deadly serious about modern art (and has the money to spend for it) knows
that Art Basel is the premiere
international art show for modern and contemporary works, which brings in hundreds
of leading galleries from all over the world for major collectors and connoisseurs.

The event is held twice a year in Basel Switzerland in mid-June, and in Miami Beach in early December.

This week, at the Basel
Switzerland art show, which runs from June
13-16, as part of Better Days (a
special art exhibition, curated by Brooklyn-based modern artist Mickalene Thomas), there will be screenings of films made by members of the black filmmaker collective, Black Radical Imagination, this Friday
June 14th.

Programmed by Chicago based filmmaker Amir George and L.A. based curator Erin Christovale, the goal of Black Radical imagination, according to both George and
Christovale, is “to invoke a futurist aesthetic of the black image on screen. The visual
pieces delve into the worlds of video art, film animation, narrative
storytelling, and new media. Each artist contributes their own vision of a free
changing world in a postmodern society.“

The films that will be screened this Friday include:

MAE’S
JOURNAL by Amir George

Mae’s Journal is a chronicle of the historic space
mission of Mae Jemison in 1992. Through 6 fictional journal entries Mae’s
journey is recreated through live action reenactments and actual footage of the
STS-47 voyage.

SPLIT
ENDS, I FEEL WONDERFUL by Akosua Adoma Owusu (Pictured above)

A woman attaches hair piece, black women in hair salons
get their hair plaited; and a woman models on a yellow turban. Eccentric
hairstyles reveal the roots of Afro hair in which activist, Angela Davis
becomes involved. Manipulating and re-positioning found footage as subject
matter, “Split Ends, I feel wonderful” observes the latest fad in hairstyles of
the 1970s among African Americans in NYC. The film takes us to a time when
Black is beautiful and a symbol of African pride., Poland. She lives and works
in Chicago.

REIFYING
DESIRE 3 by Jacolby Satterwhite

The latest installment in a six-part series, Reifying
Desire 3 is a surrealist creation myth that stems from his ongoing
collaboration with his mother. Satterwhite writes: “ʻReifying Desire 1–6ʼ will
use 230 3-D modeled versions of my motherʼs drawings, my body, and animated
figures. The intersection of the disparate disciplines including dance
performance, drawing, and digital media acts as an exquisite corpse strategy for
guiding the storyline.

GOLDEN
CHAIN by Adebukola Bodunrin & Ezra Clayton Daniels

The African Woman: mother of civilization, historically
overlooked member of contemporary global society. She finds herself now in a
distant, not-impossible future. A Nigerian space station in a remote nook of
the solar system orbits a pinpoint of matter so dense it cannot exist on Earth.
It is a recreation of the birth of the universe itself, contained for the
purpose of study, and overseen by Yetunde, chief science engineer on the space
station Eko. This animation is the story of an archetype come full circle.
Blending afro-futurist motifs with hard science fiction, we create a world at
once fantastical, yet entirely plausible, in order to ask the question: “Where
will we go, given where we came from?”

THE
CHANGING SAME by Cauleen Smith

An Alien is sent to earth to investigate the
“incubators.” She discovers that she is replacing a rogue agent and starts to
questions her mission as relationships become intimate.

AFRONAUTS
by Cristina De Middel

In 1964, still living the dream of their recently gained
independence, Zambia started a space program that would put the first African
on the moon catching up the USA and the Soviet Union in the space race. Only a
few optimists supported the project by Edward Makuka, the school teacher in
charge of presenting the ambitious program and getting its necessary funding.
But the financial aid never came, as the United Nations declined their support,
and one of the astronauts, a 16 year old girl, got pregnant and had to quit.

QUIESCENCE
INTERRUPTED…ADUMBRATE by Anansi Knowbody

The piece is an introduction… part of a work in progress.
The staring character, Buddah is a regular guy with very irregular dreams or
some might perceive as nightmares… The intent is to play on the ideas of
distraction, disruption, fear, and premonition. The relativity of dream. The
hope is to generate interest through technique and mystery.