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John Akomfrah, OBE, and Lina Gopaul
John Akomfrah, OBE, and Lina Gopaul

March 4, 2013

John Akomfrah, OBE, director, filmmaker, and writer, Smoking Dogs Films, UK
Lina Gopaul, Producer and writer, Smoking Dogs Films, UK

The Stuart Hall Project (2012) is a film on the cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall. Directed by John Akomfrah and produced by Lina Gopaul, the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2013. Through archival footage, television excerpts, family photographs, and music, Akomfrah’s portrayal of Hall’s life, work, and cultural impact explores issues of identity, cultural acceptance, immigration, and assimilation. In their lecture, the filmmakers will reflect on the film’s cultural and technological context.

John Akomfrah, OBE, and Lina Gopaul co-founded the seminal film and video group Black Audio Film Collective and the more recent production company Smoking Dogs Films. Their collaborative and long-standing partnership has won them over thirty-five international awards and over one hundred official film festival selections. Exploring the fertile grounds of film, television, and new technologies, their work challenges and redefines traditional modes of documentary filmmaking.

This lecture is part of the Special ACT Seminar with filmmakers John Akomfrah and Lina Gopaul and presented in collaboration with the MIT Visiting Artists Program.