On Ephraim Asili
We are delighted to welcome Zach Vanes of the Video Data Bank to write for us. In this essay, Vanes discusses The Diaspora Suite, a series of films on the African diaspora by Video Data Bank artist Ephraim Asili. Screening this week at Conversations at the Edge, these films bring together archival research and Asili’s travels to chart […]
February 22 – Ephraim Asili: The Diaspora Suite
In 2011, New York-based filmmaker, DJ, and traveler Ephraim Asili began an extraordinary series of films on the African diaspora. These films—Forged Ways (2011), American Hunger (2013), Many Thousands Gone (2015), Kindah (2016), and Fluid Frontiers (2017)—bring together archival research and Asili’s travels through Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jamaica, and the United States to chart cultural connections across time and space. Fluid Frontiers, for example, explores […]
On The Passion of Remembrance
This week, we look forward to screening The Passion of Remembrance, the first feature film from The Sankofa Film and Video Collective, co-directed by members Maureen Blackwood and Isaac Julien. For additional insight and context into this film and the impact of the collective’s work, we are linking to YOUNG BRITISH AND BLACK: A MONOGRAPH ON THE WORK […]
March 9 – The Passion of Remembrance
The Sankofa Film and Video Collective was part of a wave of politically-minded Black independent filmmakers who emerged in London in the 1980s, during an era of increasing social conservatism and racial unrest. The group’s acclaimed first feature, co-directed by members Maureen Blackwood and Isaac Julien, is a prismatic look at gender, race, sexuality, and […]
On Brett Story
We are thrilled to present writer & filmmaker Brett Story’s film, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, an absorbing meditation on the unexpected ways prison shapes lives and landscapes far beyond its walls. To accompany the film, Story recommends the following five books on carceral geography: an approach to analyzing incarceration and policing in spatial terms, drawing from […]
Thursday, November 17 – Brett Story: The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
“An impressive, genre-subverting work” —Filmmaker magazine The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, by the award-winning filmmaker and geographer Brett Story, is an absorbing meditation on the unexpected ways prison shapes lives and landscapes far beyond its walls. Shot across the United States, the film highlights ordinary places tied to the penal system by location, family, and […]
On Nicolás Pereda
We are excited to welcome graduate student Mev Luna to write for us this week. In their essay, Luna reflects on the work of Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Pereda whose films intertwine documentary and narrative to portray everyday life in Mexico. Nicolas Pereda is a Mexican filmmaker whose films are known for their enigmatic sensibility, minimal […]
Nicolás Pereda: Minotaur and The Palace – Thursday, October 27
Thursday, October 27 | Join us next week for a screening and discussion with Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Pereda! Nicolás Pereda’s extraordinary films intertwine documentary and narrative to portray everyday life in Mexico. In his first Chicago appearance, Pereda presents two recent works, each a suggestive fable of labor and leisure. The Palace (2013) follows an enigmatic household of women […]
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Conversations at the Edge is a weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
CATE is organized by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Video Data Bank.
Programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / Chicago, IL / 312.846.2600), unless otherwise noted.
