Isaac Julien’s Territories (1984, 26 minutes) uses experimental forms to look at life in Britain in 1984, focusing on the experience of the Black British. The film recognises that the different power dynamics that determine this experience are difficult to reduce to straightforward explanations and instead uses the term ‘territories’ to reflect the multiple agendas and experiences at work. These agendas – or ‘territories’ – involve race, class and sexuality.
Who Killed Colin Roach? (1983, 34 minutes) is Isaac Julien’s first film, which reflects upon the death of Colin Roach, a 23 year old who was shot at the entrance of a police station in East London, in 1982. Even though the police claimed Roach had died by suicide, evidence showed otherwise. Isaac Julien says that this work is essentially a response to the riots, an answer to certain fixed ways of looking at black cultures, but also at those ways we might feel about ourselves.
Guest speakers
Maori Karmael Holmes, CEO & Artistic Director, BlackStar Projects.
Thomas Allen Harris, Filmmaker/Artist and Professor in the Practice, African American Studies & Film and Media Studies, Yale University.
Registration
To register for this event, click here.
Captioning will be available through Access Kit, as well as ASL interpretation for this program.
Please note this event will be held at the Harold Prince Theater, Penn Live Arts, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
About
The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to present a new programmatic series, developed in concert with renowned artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien, from the Sankofa Film and Video Collective. Each screening will be accompanied by a conversation between a scholar and artist or filmmaker providing context and building on the works presented.
Curated by ICA, Penn Live Arts at the Annenberg Center, and BlackStar Projects. This series is organized in conjunction with multiple cultural partners across Philadelphia. In addition to ICA, they include The Barnes Foundation, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and BlackStar Projects on the occasion of the Barnes Foundation’s centennial and their newly commissioned film installation by Julien, Once Again…(Statues Never Die) on view June 19 – September 4, 2022. A list of all partner programming in relation to the centennial celebration can be found here.
