METRO CHARITY PRESENTS :
Three Films by Isaac Julien -Celebrating The Black History Month.
PROGRAMME
2:00 PM Lunch
3:00 PM Films screening
4:30 PM Reception
Please register on :
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***FREE ADMITTANCE***
One of the foremost artists of his generation, Isaac Julien is a pivotal author when it comes to addressing problematised issues such as racial tensions, post-colonial legacies, the role of sexual orientation in society, and repression versus resistance. His significant impact on contemporary art at large – including his contribution to defining the very notion of expanded cinema – and recognition as a celebrated filmmaker have never eclipsed his political engagement and his critical stance towards history.
A gay black man with strong social commitment, Isaac Julien also embodies some of METRO Charity’s dearest principles, as the organisation is largely dedicated to the LGBT and BME communities while tackling some of the utmost mental and sexual health challenges faced by the population of London and South East England.
FILMS
Western Union: Small Boats [The Leopard] 2007, 20’
Isaac Julien’s multi-screen installation Western Union:
Small Boats was produced at a time of debate about
immigration policies and the relations between the
individual and the geopolitical. Julien traces the effects of
trauma, not just on people but also on architecture and life,
by relocating these themes in a poetic manner. Edited into
a single screen format, The Leopard uses the idiom of
classical experimental cinema to communicate through the
non-representational and suggestive, rather than relying
on the strictly narrative.
The Attendant 1993, 10’
The Attendant is set in Wilberforce House in Hull, England,
a museum devoted to the history of slavery. The plot
revolves around sexual fantasies aroused in a middleaged
black male museum guard — or attendant — by a
young white male visitor.
Looking for Langston 1989, 40’
In this lyrical and poetic consideration of the life of revered
Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, awardwinning
British film-maker Isaac Julien invokes Hughes as
a black gay cultural icon, against an impressionistic,
atmospheric setting that parallels a Harlem speakeasy of
the 1920s with an 80s London nightclub. Extracts from
Hughes’ poetry are interwoven with the work of cultural
figures from the 1920s and beyond, exploring the
ambiguous sexual subtexts of a period of rich artistic
expression.
