| Screening Time: Sunday,
May 4, 11:30 AM, The Walters Art Museum
BAADASSSSS CINEMA
 Director:
Isaac Julien
Cast: Larry Cohen, Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson,
Elvis Mitchell, Afeni Shakur, Quentin Tarantino, Melvin Van Peebles
Country: U.S./U.K.
Year: 2002
Running Time: 56 minutes
Format: DVD
Baadasssss Cinema takes a straight-forward look at the
blaxploitation genre of the 1970s that began with Melvin Van Peebles’
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Interviews with
the filmmakers and the stars of the era and genre as well as the
people those movies influenced and expert critics combined with
footage from the standout films of the genre provide a primer
into blaxploitation films and their societal and artistic impact.
BALTIMORE
(North American Premiere)
 Director:
Isaac Julien
Cast: Melvin Van Peebles, Vanessa Myrie
Country: U.S./U.K.
Year: 2002
Running Time: 18 minutes
Format: DVD
Drawing inspiration from the blaxploitation genre, Isaac Julien
appropriates many of the styles, gestures, language, and iconography
of blaxploitation films, but juxtaposes them with museum spaces,
breaking down barriers between different disciplines and genres.
Baltimore was Co-commissioned by the Contemporary Museum,
Baltimore; the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; and FACT, the Foundation
for Art & Creative Technology; in association with The Great
Blacks in Wax Museum, Baltimore; The George Peabody Library, Baltimore;
and Eyebeam Atelier, New York and made possible in part by the
generous support of FACT, Peter Norton Family Foundation, the
National Endowment for the Arts, Linda Pace, Toby Lewis and Constance
R. Caplan.
--Dan Krovich |
| Isaac Julien is one of the world's
leading contemporary artists working in film. His career spans almost
20 years and in that time he's produced documentaries and shorts
for TV, a feature film, Young Soul Rebels (1991) and a
raft of acclaimed film and video installations. His nomination for
the 2001 Turner Prize followed the presentation of a series of large-scale
works that included Vagabondia (2000) and The Long
Road to Mazatlan (1999).
A pioneer in African American cinema, Melvin Van Peebles
has directed, edited, and produced films and is also an actor
and composer of music. His career was launched in Paris, where
he wrote novels and made his first feature film, The Story
of a Three Day Pass (1967) before directing the satirical
comedy Watermelon Man (1970) for Columbia. He is perhaps
best known for directing and starring in the independently financed
Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (1971), which is credited
with launching the blaxploitation genre. His most recent film
Le Conte du ventre plein (2000) won the Best International
Film Award at the 2000 Acapulco Black Film Festival.
|
