A symposium about the work of transnational filmmaker Skip Norman, a missing link in the history of the Black avant-garde in film.

Skip Norman is a missing link in the history of the Black avant-garde in film. He was part of a golden generation at the celebrated German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB) in its inaugural year of 1966, and his biography is unique and thoroughly incredible. From Harun Farocki to Haile Gerima, he collaborated with truly iconic filmmakers, and Norman’s own small but powerful body of work as a director has been in need of rediscovery. Thankfully that is now happening after a series of major international showcases over the past few years, including retrospectives at Arsenal Berlin, Open City Documentary Festival and Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Register Positioned between the screening of newly restored films by Norman at “To Save and Project: The 20th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation” and the “Skip Norman: Here and There” retrospective at Anthology Film Archives, the symposium “Skip Norman in Relation” will take the opportunity to examine and discuss the work of the transnational filmmaker in close detail. Select screenings of Norman’s films will be complemented by talks from a panel of experts dealing with key themes that connect Norman’s work with a wider aesthetic and cultural context.

Confirmed speakers include Michael B. Gillespie (New York University) and Ayanna Dozier (University of Massachusetts Amherst).

Organized by Greg de Cuir Jr, co-founder and artistic director of Kinopravda Institute (Belgrade) in collaboration with the German Film Office.

PROGRAM

10:15am
Opening remarks

10:30am
Screening #1
Skip Norman, West-Berlin, ca. 1969-70 (Ingrid Opperman, 1969-70, West Germany, 1 min.)
Riffi (Skip Norman, 1966, West Germany, 16 min.)

10:50am
Conversation #1: On History

11:30am
Screening #2
Blues People (Skip Norman, 1969, West Germany, 18 min.)

11:50am
Conversation #2: On Sex

12:30pm
Lunch break

2:00pm
Screening #3
Cultural Nationalism (Skip Norman, 1969, West Germany, 11 min.)

2:15pm
Conversation #3: On Politics

2:45pm
Closing remarks