 James Baldwin in Baldwin's Nigger (Horace Ové, 1969) |
Two films by Horace Ové, CBE
Baldwin’s Nigger
and Reggae
Friday, February 24, 2017
Gallery 992 | 8:00 pm
$10 admission
tickets through Eventbrite
Co-sponsored by Liquid
Blackness. the Department of
Film & Media
Studies and the
James Weldon
Johnson Institute at Emory University
Horace Ové, CBE, may be
best known for Pressure (1976), the first feature film by a black
director in Britain. But earlier in his career came two remarkable political
documentaries produced in the wake of Black Power – one a document of James
Baldwin at peak intensity, and the other an examination of reggae at the very
beginning of its international emergence.
The 2016 Oscar-nominated
documentary I Am Not Your Negro has shown all over again the importance
of James Baldwin’s ideas and the ever-powerful force of his literary voice.
Horace Ové’s film Baldwin's Nigger documents a 1969 appearance by
Baldwin and Dick Gregory at London's West Indian Student Centre. In an
extemporized address to a packed room, Baldwin undertakes a complex examination
of the experience of blackness, in history and in the immediate context of the
American war in Vietnam.
Always a magnetic presence, Baldwin is at his
most riveting in this film. Following his talk is an animated back-and-forth
between the audience of students, activists, and community members and Baldwin,
who responds in the moment to questions about integration, the difference
between "Negro" and "black," and the role of white liberals in Black Power.
Ové’s film, rather than simply celebrating a famous writer, preserves the
integrity of Baldwin’s encounter with his audience. Baldwin's Nigger is
thus a valuable document not only of Baldwin, but of the West Indian Student
Centre itself, and of a black community in Britain finding the way through a
fraught political moment.
Reggae is a very early documentary
about the political significance of Jamaican music’s emergence in Britain.
Filmed partly at a 1970 concert in Wembley Stadium and containing performances
by Desmond Dekker, the Maytals and other superstars, Reggae is
nonetheless something other than a concert film. Found footage, street
photography, interviews with fans and music industry figures combine with the
vintage performances to create a sharp and textured report that captures its
moment and looks forward to reggae’s worldwide acceptance and its influence on
the imminent development of British punk.
Though quite different from
each other, both of these films touch on themes of immigration, integration, and
black culture across borders. Their immediate context was the West Indian
experience in Britain in the era of Black Power, but Horace Ové’s prescience as
a filmmaker ensures they remain ever-relevant to us, here, today, in the era of
Black Lives Matter, and beyond.
Baldwin’s Nigger
(Horace Ové, 1969) 45 minutes
Reggae (Horace Ové, 1971) 60
minutes
Gallery 992
992 Ralph David Abernathy
Blvd.
Atlanta, Georgia 30310
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Gallery-992-1356018754415055/
Two Films by Horace Ové
is a Film Love event. The Film Love series provides access to great but
rarely seen films, especially important works unavailable on consumer video.
Programs are curated and introduced by Andy Ditzler, and feature lively
discussion. Through public screenings and events, Film Love preserves the
communal viewing experience, provides space for the discussion of film as art,
and explores alternative forms of moving image projection and viewing.