John Akomfrah - Why History Matters | TateShots

John Akomfrah talks about his practice as a filmmaker, how he navigates between the gallery and cinema, what compelled him to make his 2015 work Vertigo Sea, and the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky.
In this TateShots, John also talks about his commitment to the “philosophy of montage”, his interest in archive and documentary and the importance of history.
John is an artist and filmmaker well known for his work with the London-based Black Audio Film Collective, which he co-founded in 1982. He made his debut with Handsworth Songs which went on to win the Grierson Award for Best Documentary in 1987. Today he runs the production company Smoking Dog Films and continues to produce films for a variety of spaces.

[@oonadoherty7489]

I saw Vertigo Sea in Copenhagen and my first thought was, "Here is an almost-completely successful work of art, so rare." I wanted to watch it and watch it. Having the opportunity to see this interview adds to my appreciation of what he is doing and what he is accomplishing. I hope that Vertigo Sea can be seen by high school students all over the world, especially with some conversation about how the real images and the fictional images are linked.

[@teamcrumb]

Handsworth songs and The Stuart Hall Project are two of the best documentaries i've ever seen. thank you so much, John, for helping us access such important golden information and to hear the voices and note the experiences of people and concerns so woefully overlooked. my cultural studies tutors in Norwich in the 1990s didn't so much as mention Stuart Hall. they were great people (some of them), buti think i must have studied the whitest cultural studies degree going

[@AphieDuo]

What a guy man, what a guy. Saw his work today and was left in complete awe.

[@omalone1169]

Who Needs A Heart (1991)

[@SuperRobertoClemente]

I would love to hear more about how Tarkovsky has inflected his work.

[@bmtfilm7538]

Groundbreaking and inspiring work.

[@albertoballocca]

Pure philosophy.

[@kojoman75]

A Publisher; while discussing the difficulties of making movies of African American-experiences just told me like it is; "although your life adventures is very enlightening, as is many Black Americans, they're to revealing and CONTRADICTORY, of previous written history, thus making them UNMARKETABLE” and added how sorry he was.. However he did publishes my memoir.

[@MsValentinaT]

I must admit my ignorance of his work until today. I was lucky to bump into his exhibition at Baltic Museum and was very inspired by it. Why isn't he more mainstream?

[@teamcrumb]

more like why do we rely on the mainstream to deliver people to us when we know it is the mainstream.

[@odyssey.studios]

Into Tarkovsky, a man of taste!

[@jellygiraffe32]

uni of nottingham anyone??