Cultural Visor-Strategist, Pan African Visual & Sonic Artist & Programmer; Black Youth Pedagogies; Psychogeography; Decolonising Archives: - Advisory Board Member - WeAfric
Jhttps://lnkd.in/essNc4SJ Gerima, remains an entirely different proposition. In cinematic and cultural terms, his mind has been a prime source of sanity in the midst of very real, very serious emergencies, and a living spirit guide I didn't know I had until one afternoon. I'm a researcher, and artist who decided to put down the everything, sit with himself - and whenever I can, you all - and dive into a bottomless well of enquiry. Filmmakers often struggle ask the right question. Too often. Finding it impossible to pull themselves away from the thrill of making films enough to interrogate whether they should be making films at all - people of African origin, as well as others, struggle to contend with the reality that some modalities we have inherited, and the lexicons that become the mediums themselves, have not been examined closely enough to identify elements that could be corrosive to the African/Black cultural self and sense of spiritual dimension; such an enquiry sounds like total madness...I get it. But check this: it's entirely possible, maybe likely, that you don't really, REALLY know what you are doing, or more importantly, why. Whatever it is we are doing, has to address these obscured cultural emergencies, wherever we find them. Otherwise, what is it for? Cultural interruption is among the most serious, and most institutions are either lagging behind, or facilitating the disaster. You won't hear local council's supporting smaller organisations to initiate a cultural renaissance of sorts to foreground indigenous African cosmologies, or their social frameworks to solve the problem of Serious Youth Violence, nor disrupt their own version of what a community looks like, for one that actually functions properly. A young filmmaker I know who is also from Eritrea, told me of a social technology whereby if Man A kills Man B, then Man A can be forced to marry a female from Man B's family, in order to preserve the community in the midst of tragedy. Many institutions are experts at mystifying the emergency and presenting the low-hanging fruit of participation in its place. Let’s deepen the enquiry. I attended the final talk of Film London's London Screen Archives Conference with June Givanni in conversation with Etienne Joseph, Tamera Heron, Gary Collins and Rai Terry (I'll comment on that later). The work is serious. A few of us will be making our presence felt next year, you have our support. After the conference, surveying the room and hearing its whispers, while speaking to a peer about the make up of that room, and the collective consciousness within it, it became clear that many professionals with an interest in archives, have an underdeveloped understanding of the true value of the Black archive because they do not understand and are not stakeholders in the emergency. We are, so act accordingly. Dalian Adofo Zik Udenze Keith Shiri Desta Haile Rachel Victor-Sampson FRSA Clive Chijioke Nwonka Estrella Sendra Paul Anthony Morris
Gary Collins
3mo
I look forward to hearing about what you thought of our conversation Around the importance of our culture with in the archives for the future generations
Curator/Archivist Pan African Cinema, June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive, #JGPACA
3moHighly recommended So very valuable and important for us all. Many Congrats Haile/Shirikiana and the whole Sankofa team.