Sankofa

Founded 1983, London, UK

Along with the Black Audio Film Collective, the other highly important Black film and video workshop collective of the mid 1980s was Sankofa, whose members were Martina Attille, Maureen Blackwood, Isaac Julien and Nadine Marsh-Edwards. Together, these two collectives “insisted on shifting the terms of avant-garde film theory and practice to include an ongoing engagement with the politics of race, combining a montage aesthetic with elements of personal reflection.” It is significant that groups such as Sankofa in effect comprised a “movement [which] was concerned to effect a shift to more collective modes of cultural production fully embracing Foucault’s critique of the author name in favour of collective ‘authorship’ “ (1)

(1) Both quotations are from the entry by Mark Nash, ‘Black Audio Film Collective’ in Documenta 11_Platform 5: Exhibition Short Guide, 2002, p. 36.

»  The force of black film

Article relating to an exhibition, 1987

»  Isaac Julien | Looking for Langston

Article relating to an exhibition, 1990

»  Looking for Langston

Article relating to a film, 1989

»  Looking for Langston

Article relating to a film, 1989

»  Third Eye | Struggle for Black & Third World Cinema

Catalogue relating to a conference, 1983