Florence, Cinema Odeon, November 24 2012
At Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival 2012, Isaac Julien presented three films, Baltimore (2003), True North (2004) and The Leopard (2010).
The three films have several things in common: they were originally intended as multi-channel video installations; they all feature actress Vanessa Myrie, and they’re all reflections on the politics of representation, which includes chosing to translate what was originally intended for a gallery into a format aimed at the cinema’s wider audience. The interview, which took place at Cinema Odeon in Florence on November 24, 2012, takes on the process of memorialization and historicization of black culture, on the basis of the rediscovery of African-American Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, in True North; and the investigation and deconstruction of ”Blaxploitation” films, in Baltimore; and reflects on the need for a new narration of social and political themes through the search for a language — as in The Leopard – that’s able to communicate and at the same time resist the modes in which such subjects are generally dealt with.
The interview is a Radio Papesse production.
AudioVideo by Felpa.