Isaac Julien

April 20–21, 2016

Isaac Julien, a central figure in British visual culture and queer independent cinema, presents his boundary-pushing work over two evenings.

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The Attendant
Looking for Langston
Playtime
Playtime

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Past Films

Looking for Langston
Isaac Julien
UK, 1988
Wednesday, April 20 7 PM
Isaac Julien in conversation with Stephen Best
Julien’s lyrical reimagining of the cultural legacy of revered African American poet Langston Hughes forms a study of artistic expression and the nature of black gay desire. With shorts The Attendant and The Long Road to Mazatlán.

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Isaac Julien Presents Recent Installation Works
Thursday, April 21 7 PM
Isaac Julien in conversation with Leigh Raiford
Julien discusses his recent installations Playtime and Kapital, which respond to the global financial crisis through an elegant fusion of fiction and documentary. Plus an excerpt from his exploration of Chinese culture, Ten Thousand Waves.

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Isaac Julien

April 20–21, 2016

“I come from cinema; it’s cinema I’m quoting from and cinema I reappropriate.”—Isaac Julien, Riot

We are delighted that Isaac Julien will join us for an evening of his films and a presentation on his multiscreen installation works; he is the UC Regents’ Lecturer for 2016, invited on the initiative of The Black Room, a UC Berkeley faculty collective. Julien is a filmmaker and photographer who has been a central figure in British visual culture, black British cultural studies, and queer independent cinema for the last two decades. His work has pushed the boundaries of filmmaking in documentary, biography, dance, and narrative. He is one of the pioneers expanding the reach of film from cinemas to museums and galleries, staging acclaimed multiscreen art installations. Glenn D. Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art, recently described his work as distinguished by “a particular fascination and strength, combining...

“I come from cinema; it’s cinema I’m quoting from and cinema I reappropriate.”—Isaac Julien, Riot

Julien’s work has been widely recognized; he is the recipient of awards from both the Berlin and Seattle International Film Festivals, and of a Frameline Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship and the McDermott Award from MIT.

The Black Room

Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco premieres a retrospective of still photographs by Isaac Julien, Vintage, on view from April 22 to June 11. The exhibition includes works from Looking for Langston (1989), Three (1999), Trussed (1996), and Mazatlan (1999-2000), as well as a selection of images from more recent bodies of work. The exhibition opening is Friday, April 22 from 6 to 8 p.m.

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Presented with The Black Room, an interdisciplinary working group of faculty in the Departments of English and African American Studies sponsored by the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. With thanks to Black Room members Leigh Raiford, Stephen Michael Best, Darieck Scott, Nadia Ellis, and Bryan Wagner; Jeffrey Skoller, UC Berkeley Film & Media Department; Tarini Malik, Rafaela Mendes Ferreira, Isaac Julien Studio; and George Watson, BFI Distribution.

Isaac Julien

April 20–21, 2016

Past Films

Looking for Langston

Isaac Julien Presents Recent Installation Works