A Riveting Virtual Discussion on Roles of Sensorial Immersion & Human Rights

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Join British artist Isaac Julien alongside Film Quarterly editor B. Ruby Rich and contributors Kass Banning and Warren Crichlowon Wednesday, October 28, 12pm for a riveting discussion about the roles of sensorial immersion and human rights in Julien’s immersive film installation Lessons of the Hour-Frederick Douglass (2019). The ten-screen “moving image montage” eschews cultural idealization of the abolitionist while revealing Douglass as a visionary and continued force for human rights in the twenty-first century. Rich has written extensively about Julien’s filmmaking, having coined the term “New Queer Cinema” to describe a movement in queer-themed, independent filmmaking that emerged in the early 1990s and focused on the filmographies of Julien and peers such as Gregg Araki, Todd Haynes, Derek Jarman, Tom Kalin, Sally Potter, and Yvonne Rainer. Scholars Banning and Crichlow recently co-published the article “A Grand Panorama: Isaac Julien, Frederick Douglass, and Lessons of the Hour,” Film Quarterly vol. 73, no. 4 (Summer): 11-24.

‘Lessons of the Hour’ is on view October 14, 2020 – March 13, 2021. Incorporating excerpts of his speeches and dramatizations of his private and public milieus, the work offers a contemplative, poetic journey into Douglass’ zeitgeist and a forceful suggestion that the lessons of the abolitionist’s hour have yet to be learned.The exhibition includes the resonant film-video program ‘New Labor Movements’ curated by Leila Weefur and a series of free online conversations that explore the works on view, Douglass’s legacy and his relevance today, and the history of photography, among other topics. Admission is free. McEvoy Arts is open Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm.

This program takes place online via Zoom, admission is free with registration.

The media partner for Lessons of the Hour is frieze Magazine.

Presented by McEvoy Foundation for the Arts

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.