Movies: Isaac Julien

Erotic images of Black men with voice over text by Isaac Julien and Kobena Mercer question the objectification of the Black male image by white photographers....

The film explores the storied relationship between Dr Albert C. Barnes, an early US collector and exhibitor of African cultural artefacts, and the renowned philosopher and cultural critic Alain Locke, known as the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance”....

Encore II (Radioactive) is a short film study inspired by a character from the writings of Octavia Butler, an African American science fiction writer, best known for her recurring exploration of genetic manipulation, contamination and hybridity and D...

TEN THOUSAND WAVES is a 9-screen installation shot on location in China. The work poetically weaves together stories linking China’s ancient past and present. Through an architectural installation, the work explores the movement of people across coun...

An exploration of the homophobia expressed by reggae and rap artists againts gays and lesbians. Inludes interviews with rappers Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton, who cite religious reasons for their particular brand of homophobia....

A two part documentary that details the contribution of black and Asian people to television history from the birth of television in 1936 to 1992. Interviewees include: Pearl Connor, Thomas Baptiste, Lenny Henry, Norman Beaton, Horace Ové, Carmen Mun...

Who Killed Colin Roach? is Isaac Julien's first film, which reflects upon the death of Colin Roach, a 23 year old who was shot at the entrance of a police station in East London, in 1982. Even though the police claimed Roach had commited suicide, ev...

An immersive installation by the artist and filmmaker. "Coda" to Looking for Langston....

Fantôme Créole is a four-screen film installation that juxtaposes Arctic and African landscapes as it combines two films: True North, filmed in the Artic landscapes of Iceland, and Fantôme Afrique, filmed in Burkina Faso. Fantôme Créole juxtaposes A...

An experimental dance piece revealing the complex dynamics between two dancers and another woman....

This highly stylized short asserts sexual desire over fear in gay romantic relationships....

Fantôme Afrique, weaves cinematic and architectural references through the rich imagery of urban Ouagadougou, the centre for cinema in Africa, and the arid spaces of rural Burkina Faso, and is punctuated by archival footage from early colonial expedi...

Shot in Texas, Isaac Julien's Turner Prize nominated film installation Long Road to Mazatlán reflects upon the construction of masculinity through a choreographed mise-en-scène....

Through a series of interviews with leading British AIDS activists and cultural theorists, this documentary investigates the way in which AIDS has been used by the media and by the government to increase state harassment of gay men and lesbians, blac...

Baltimore deals with the cinematization of video art, on the one hand, and a queering and racing of the museum, on the other. The film installation works as an intervention that attempts to address the creolising vision in the space of the gallery....

This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists and cultural workers including Es...

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Isaac Julien's contribution to Documenta Platform6 in memory of Okwui Enwezor....

Isaac Julien’s 2007 multi-screen installation Western Union Small Boats is a work where individual voyages, journeys and travel are explored locally, in order to allude to the global scenario....

Memory mixes with desire as a museum attendant is caught up in sado-masochistic fantasies inspired by a 19th century painting of slaves in chains called Scene on the coast of Africa. The man remembers his past as a singer and delivers Dido's lament f...