Panel Discussion on Afrofuturist Cinema

17 Battery Place,New York NY 10004

23 February, 2022

Description

A panel of black filmmakers discuss the growth and impact of the Afrofuturism movement in cinema. This is a vaccinated (including booster) and masked event. If attending, you will be asked to show proof of vaccination including booster (if eligible). In this panel of tastemakers, artists, filmmakers and scholars, we’ll explore whether the current wave of Afrofuturism represents a new era in Black Cinema or whether what’s happening now is simply the evolution of a continuum that has been brewing for more than a century. Panelists include Film Producer Mishka Brown, (Moderator); Co-Founder, Black Speculative Arts Movement Reynaldo Anderson, Professor at Georgia State University Jonathan Gayle; Artist and Film Producer Tim Fielder; and Director and Producer Jim Fielder. This is a vaccinated (including booster) and masked event. If attending, you will be asked to show proof of vaccination including booster (if eligible). Afrofuturism Festival Events at New York Film Academy, in collaboration with Carnegie Hall and Black Speculative Arts Movement and Dieselfunk Studios While megahit Black Panther brought Afro-Futurist Cinema to the mainstream, the concept was introduced more than 100 years ago and grew through Black creativity in literature, technology, music and the visual arts. W.E.B. Dubios’ 1920 science fiction novel The Comet is the godfather of Afrofuturism and its progeny - the work of authors Samuel R. Delaney and Octavia E. Butler, built on that foundation. The music and experimental films of Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and George Clinton expanded the paradigm and set the stage for an explosion through the medium of cinema. From the work of filmmakers Shirley Clarke and The Black Audio Film Collective, to the music videos of Missy Elliot to the genre-defying work of Terrance Nance, Afro-Futurist Cinema breaks open new possibilities of cinematic storytelling through the use of innovation and imagination. Afrofuturism in Cinema: Infinity, Creativity and Beyond is a series of film screenings and panels at New York Film Academy that explore how the foundation laid by our artistic ancestors has given birth to a new generation of filmmakers intent on using cinema to challenge, provoke, break us down, build us up and introduce to infinite possibility.