Isaac Julien is best known to American audiences for his documentary and feature films and their poetic explorations of race, gender, sexuality, and the history of cinema itself. In recent years, however, he has also been creating multi-channel video installations that are exhibited in museums and galleries. In conversation with media theorist Kaja Silverman, he will discuss this powerful new work and how it relates to his “traditional” filmmaking practice, his early training in painting, and his interest in breaking down barriers between artistic disciplines.

Isaac Julien was born in 1960 in London, where he currently lives and works. After graduating from St Martin's School of Art in 1984, Julien founded Sankofa Film and Video Collective (1983–1992). He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001 for his films The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999), made in collaboration with Javier de Frutos, and Vagabondia (2000). Earlier works include Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask (1996), Young Soul Rebels (1991), and Looking for Langston (1989). He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Frameline Lifetime Achievement Award (2002). Most recently, he has had solo shows at the Pompidou Centre in Paris (2005), MoCA Miami (2005), and the Kerstner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2006). Julien is represented in the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim, and Hirshhorn collections.

Kaja Silverman is the Class of 1940 Professor of Rhetoric and Film at UC Berkeley, and the author of seven books, including The Subject of Semiotics (1983), The Threshold of the Visible World (1995), and World Spectators (2000). Forthcoming this year is Flesh of My Flesh. She has written extensively on photography and time-based art over the past eight years.

This program is being presented by the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.