Image: Hailie Germina, Hour Glass, 1971, film still. Courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive

2.00pm - 7.00pm 

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG.

Pioneering, provocative and visionary, the LA Rebellion films form a crucial body of work in post-war cinema. In the late 1960s, a number of African and African American students entered UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television, and from the first class through to the 1980s came to represent the first sustained undertaking to forge an alternative Black cinema practice in the United States.

This seminar, developed by The Otolith Collective with Tate Film will look at the international legacy of the L.A. Rebellion films and seek to situate these works in the broader history of politics, music and visuals arts. Through the participation of artists and theorists based in the UK alongside visiting filmmakers, the seminar will look at the international reverberations of this period, its impact and connection to global movements from Third Cinema to film collectives in the UK such as the Black Audio Film Collective and contemporary artists.

Seminar speakers include Barbara McCullough, experimental film and video artist and Billy Woodberry, independent filmmaker and tutor at California Institute of the Arts since 1989, both of whom were key figures in the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television and June Givanni, film curator, archivist and international consultant in African and African diaspora cinema. More

If booking for this event a complimentary ticket is also available for Barbara McCullough: Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space. This offer can only be booked by calling +44 (0)20 7887 8888

Seminar Programme:

Session 1
Introduction - The Otolith Collective, Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar
Screening - Haile Gerima, Hour Glass, USA 1971. Digital video transferred from 16mm, black and white and colour, 14min.
Talk - Barbara McCullough.
Screening - Barbara McCullough, Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification, USA 1979. 35 mm, black and white, 6min.
Talk - June Givanni.

Session 2
Screening - Julie Dash, Four Women, USA 1975, 16mm, colour, 7min.
Screening - Ben Caldwell, Medea, USA, 1973. Digital video transferred from 16mm, colour, 14min
Panel discussion - Billy Woodberry, Barbara McCullough and June Givanni, chaired by Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar. Followed by audience discussion.

Session 3
Introduction by Barbara McCullough.
Screening - Barbara McCullough, Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space, USA, 1981. Video, colour, 60min. Introduced by Barbara McCullough.
Screening - Elyseo J. Taylor: Black Art, Black Artists, USA, 1971. Digital video transferred from 16mm, colour, 16 min.
Followed by discussion with Barbara McCullough.