Pioneers of Black British Cinema: John Akomfrah and the Black Audio Film Collective

Ghanaian-born British video artist John Akomfrah (*1957) is a co-founder of the influential film workshop Black Audio Film Collective. In 1986, the independent collective produced the essay film HANDSWORTH SONGS for Channel 4. Akomfrah chose a narrative form that deliberately distanced itself from established film conventions in order to question the practices and ideologies of the mainstream media. In an audiovisual collage, television reports and newspaper clippings from the 1985 Handsworth Riots are combined with interviews and archival materials, accompanied by a catchy dub soundtrack and lyrical voiceover. Rather than factual discussions, the focus here is on metanarratives, personal reflections, and ghost stories. In the 1995 videotaped Afrofuturist music documentary THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY , produced by Channel 4 and ZDF, Akomfrah followed the fictional character of a time-traveling data thief. Using fragments from Sun Ra's jazz compositions, the techno narratives of the Detroit label Underground Resistance, and interviews with the writer Kodwo Eshun (More Brilliant Than the Sun), the thief searches for a code with new perspectives for the future.

Films:

Handsworth Songs John Akomfrah UK 1986 Digital file English. OF 61 Min.

The Last Angel of History John Akomfrah UK/D 1995 Digital file engl. OV 45 min.