Elvan Zabunyan | Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Translations of Memory
April 28
John Akomfrah, OBE
Filmmaker and writer, Smoking Dogs Films (UK)
Lina Gopaul
Producer and writer, Smoking Dogs Films (UK)
John Akomfrah’s Transfigured Night is a two-screen installation and reinterpretation of Richard Dehmel’s poem Verklärte Nacht that reflects on postcolonial histories. Exploring the many facets of migration, human experience, and political struggle, Akomfrah and Gopaul’s films, gallery installations, documentaries, TV productions, and video works challenge and redefine traditional modes of filmmaking.
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. Akomfrah and Gopaul’s extensive filmography includes The March (2013), Stuart Hall Project (2012), The Nine Muses (2010), Oil Spill: The Exxon Valdez Disaster (2009), Riot (1999), Martin Luther King: Days of Hope (1997), and Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993).
This lecture is presented in collaboration with the MIT Visiting Artists Program and in connection to the Cinematic Migrations Symposium on March 6–7, 2014.
Complementing the lecture series and symposium, the Harvard Film Archive will be showing several films directed by John Akomfrah and produced by Lina Gopaul. See http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa for details.
