MOCA screens Black Radical Imagination

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles premiered a screening of Black Radical Imagination on March 17. The film consists of six short films “emphasizing new stories from within the African Diaspora,” according to the project’s website. Free and open to the public, auditorium seats quickly filled while a good portion of the crowd watched from a small screen outside of the entrance. The immense turnout, consisting of a diverse population, speaks for the support this new wave of black cinema receives.

The short films were powerful messages about what it means to be black today. In the mainstream media, black citizens are greatly underrepresented. The presence of these citizens, constant throughout these films, invoked a sense of comfort — that black citizens could act freely, as opposed to being objectified to stereotypical roles, as is so common in the mainstream media.

As the films consisted of very abstract content, the end of the screening left the audience speechless and hungry for analysis. The two curators of the program, Erin Christovale and Amir George (who was also a participating artist), held a discussion. Two other artists, Terence Nance and Lauren Kelley, also joined the panel. Christovale questioned George, Nance and Kelley about their works and each gave complex answers.

George’s work, Just A Place, features the Hoodonians, of the planet Hoodoe, who were exiled from their home planet due to their appearance. Their faces are covered by the soft shells of their hoodies. As they lack spoken language, the Hoodonians are forced to communicated by movement. The common entity of the Hoodonians, as marked by their neon hoodies, and controlled movement, makes a statement concerning the black entity today. In Just A Place, the narrator states, “our hoods protect our souls. I was born in my hood,” so as to exemplify the confined boundaries black bodies are born into.

On the other hand, Lauren Kelley’s work, Burlap Interior, epitomizes dark humor through the use of black barbie dolls. This non-animated short features four Barbies, dressed in taffeta dresses and wax smiles, participating in a beauty pageant. After weeks of polish consultation and pleasure deprivation, no singular winner is crowned — everyone’s a winner. The film then follows the Barbies in their car rides home, capturing the mundane moments in their everyday lives. Kelley communicates what it means to be in a malleable state, as exemplified through the mundanity.

The last and longest film, Swimming in Your Skin Again, created by Terence Nance, featured black bodies clothed in neon yellow. This complex short takes place in multiple settings — at church, in the forest, at a pool — and channels relationships and love, as it is inundated by pop culture and religion. The abstract nature of this film is a result of Nance’s stream of conscious writing technique. Throughout the film, one person lays their hands on another, and each person who has been touched either disappears or is transported to another location. Nance’s idea here is that the act of touching someone calms them down, when what the person is fighting is unalterable.

“Without the ability to imagine a new future there would not be all this civil unrest,” Christovale remarked, as she passionately spoke about how black cinema needs to be constantly produced.

Surely, Black Radical Imagination took a stand against the paradigm of black people as portrayed in the cinema industry. This reimagination serves to create a new future, and this sold-out screening propels the movement in an undeniably positive direction.

Select works from Black Radical Imagination will be screened online until April 29. A schedule of future showings of the film can be found on the program’s website.