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sorryyoufeeluncomfortable Barby Asante and Teresa Cisneros

Look Back, Think Black

18 Sep 2014

Film screening and conversation with curator Michael McMillan and filmmaker Campbell X.

Eventbrite - Look Back, Think Black. Film screening and conversation with curator Michael McMillan and filmmaker Campbell X.

 

Look Back, Think Black:  Film Screening and Conversation

SYFU collective member Deborah Findlater has selected a seminal film from the past which explores issues of police brutality, respectability politics and religion in order to create a conversation across the generations. Invited guests curator Michael McMillan and filmmaker Campbell X will join Deborah in conversation after the film screening.

The event was borne out of the differences recognised between the generations, for example, the term ‘black’ in a political sense is seen as outdated and irrelevant amongst the youth of today but has had great historical importance in Britain.  This event will offer the opportunity for people of different generations to have an open and frank conversation about what it means to be part of British society and the changes or lack of changes that have taken place over the last 50 years.

Campbell X is the filmmaker behind BlackmanVision and has recently written and directed the award-winning feature film Stud Life which is on DVD and is distributed by Peccadillo Pictures in the UK, Wolfe Video in the USA and Busk Films internationally. Campbell constantly pushes boundaries in visual aesthetics and content in moving image. Campbell started out making films for the UK television and titles include Ragga Gyal D’Bout! about female fans of Ragga Music, the award-winning BD Women about Black lesbian stories, and the award-winning Legacy about the psychological effect of transatlantic slavery on family relationships.

Michael McMillan is a playwright, artist-curator and scholar of Vincentian parents. After winning Essay a competition that took him to FESTAC 77 (The 2nd World Festival of African Arts and Culture), he wrote his play The School Leaver (1978), which was produced at the Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers’ Festival. This was followed by Hard Time Pressure (1981), also at the Royal Court.

Michael studied Sociology with African and Asian Studies at Sussex University, has an MA in Independent Film & Video from Central Saint Martins School of Art and was awarded a practice-based Arts Doctorate from Middlesex University in 2010. He is also Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.


The sorryyoufeeluncomfortable Collective has programmed this event as part of their residency. The collective formed during the recent Baldwin’s Nigger Reloaded project created in collaboration with artist Barby Asante and Education Curator Teresa Cisneros and hosted at Iniva. The purpose at the heart of this initial project was to bring together a group of artists, thinkers, and makers interested in exploring questions related to both personal and societal experiences.