BAMPFA from Home

Live Conversation and Q&A with Melissa Haizlip and Ryanaustin Dennis, Tuesday, September 1, 6 PM PDT

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In conjunction with BAMPFA’s streaming presentation of Mr. SOUL!, join us for a live conversation and Q&A with director Melissa Haizlip and the cocurator of BAMPFA’s Black Life series, Ryanaustin Dennis.

Melissa Haizlip is an award-winning filmmaker whose work responds to social issues at the intersection of racial justice, social justice, activism, and representation, and is currently producing a docuseries about women in hip-hop. Her feature documentary Mr. SOUL! has received numerous awards, including sixteen jury and audience awards for Best Documentary. Haizlip directed and produced Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop and produced Wu Tsang’s You’re Dead to Me. Her two-channel art films have been exhibited by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Biennial, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and Stedelijk Museum. Haizlip has been awarded numerous grants from organizations including the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the International Documentary Association, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ryanaustin Dennis is an Oakland-based art worker and cultural strategist. Their practice is concerned with how the histories of twentieth- and twenty-first-century experimental performance, film, and writing are shaped by the metaphysics of blackness. They have done curatorial work for Kadist, SFMOMA's Open Space, Eastside Arts Alliance, and Soundwave Biennial. They currently cocurate the Black Life series at BAMPFA and Pro Arts Gallery & Commons.