Lecture-performance by Christopher Harris

Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (BIMI) is a response to the growing interest in film and the moving image across the College. Through public events and academic research initiatives, BIMI will address a wide variety of contemporary issues, particularly those relevant to its interdisciplinary structure.  Working closely with the Birkbeck Cinema, BIMI programmes public screenings and special seasons, making use of 35 mm film in addition to the Cinema’s high quality DVD projection.We will be runninga busy calendar of eventsfrom research seminars to film screenings. Please check these pages for further details in the coming weeks.BIMI is funded across three schools at Birkbeck: theSchool of Arts,School of Law, andSchool of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy.  TheUniversity of Pittsburghis also a partner and co-funder.

Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image

Speaking in Tongues: a lecture-performance by Christopher Harris
Supported by <A CLASS="external-link" HREF="https://www.chase.ac.uk/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">CHASE, Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England</A> and Open City Documentary Festival. 
Throughout his career artist and filmmaker Christopher Harris has used film and video installations to re-stage and explore African American accounts of history. Using experimental film techniques, Harris brings disparate mediums into dialogue with one another, in order to present multiple perspectives highlighting experiences of the African diaspora. 
In this session Harris will demonstrate and discuss his working method and creative process. For several years, Harris has been working on ‘Speaking in Tongues’, a 16mm film inspired by Ishmael Reed’s novel Mumbo Jumbo, which uses fragments of found footage sourced from Hollywood films, cartoons and documentaries. In this way, ‘Speaking in Tongues’ continues Harris’s long-standing interest in producing counter-narratives, and in this lecture-performance he will unpack some of his research for this project, and present some fragments from this as yet unfinished work.
Accompanying this lecture-performance is Harris’s earlier work Reckless Eyeballing (2004). This is an experimental 16mm short film which, through re-editing fragments from films such as Birth of a Nation (1915) and Foxy Brown (1974), creates fictional encounters that critically examine concepts of ‘the gaze’ from an African American cinematic context. 
About Christopher Harris
Christopher Harris is a filmmaker whose films and video installations read African American historiography through the poetics and aesthetics of experimental cinema.  His work employs manually and photo-chemically altered appropriated moving images, staged re-enactments of archival artefacts and interrogations of documentary conventions. His award-winning experimental films include a long-take look at a post-industrial urban landscape, an optically printed and hand-processed film about black outlaws, a pinhole film about the cosmic consequences of the sun’s collapse, a macro lens close up of a child’s nightlight, and a double-projection film about a theme-park performance of Christ’s Passion. Harris recently completed two multi-screen HD video installations that re-enact and reimagine the slave daguerreotypes commissioned by Louis Agassiz in 1850. His work has been exhibited at festivals, museums and cinematheques throughout North America and Europe.

Birkbeck Cinema

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Lecture-performance by Christopher Harris

More events from Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image

Discover more events from Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, from Film & Media to other experiences you might love.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in London and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.

Lecture-performance by Christopher Harris

More events from Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image

Discover more events from Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, from Film & Media to other experiences you might love.

More Film & Media events

Browse more Film & Media events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all events in London and filter by date, category, and more to find the perfect fit.