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Visual Studies Workshop continues its “In Dialogue” series this evening with “Speaking in Tongues: In Dialogue with Christopher Harris.”
“Rather than a program of just their own films, we create a selection of their films that can then dialogue with selections from (VSW’s) archives,” says Tara Nelson, VSW chief curator and managing editor of VSW Press. “It creates a unique program that they’ll never make again. So, it becomes an interesting process for (both the artist and VSW).”
Harris’ art examines the political aesthetics of racism, capitalism, and African-American culture. His most recent work, “Speaking in Tongues: Part One,” is a 16mm film inspired by the 1972 novel, “Mumbo Jumbo,” which tells the story of resistance against the suppression of Black dance culture.
Incorporating footage from films, cartoons, documentaries, and archival media, “Speaking in Tongues” comments on the incarceration of Black people and their resistance through states of ecstasy.
The films Harris will put in dialogue with his own include several cartoons from VSW’s collection. For example, an episode of Fat Albert titled “How to Police Your Neighborhood,” and a 1943 Disney short, “Defense Against Invasion,” will be shown.
“The Fat Albert series was just so instrumental in the sense of television education of a certain generation,” Nelson says, “with the morality play of the episodes, but also a lot of the racial tropes that were both integrated in but also challenged by Fat Albert.
“(‘Defense Against Invasion’) is a kind of educational classroom film for talking to kids about germs,” she continues. “But when you see this film, you also see the 1940s and the wartime influence there.”
In the film, white blood cells are equipped with guns, and germs are cast as dark, foreign-looking people with slanted eyes, Nelson notes.
“There’s this language of invasion and defense, but the iconography is in cartoon form,” she says. “From a media literacy standpoint, there’s a lot of obvious propaganda there.”
Harris selected those films due to their intersection of education and media, as well as their complexity and contradiction. His own work often examines those topics through the lens of film as a temporal and spatial medium.
The experimental filmmaker’s unique style highlights elements of duration, absence, and silence that can be deliberate in its editing and pace. Simultaneously, as a self-described “failed musician,” his work also incorporates elements of jazz music and avant-garde cinema to create its own sense of musicality.
“(Harris) came to filmmaking kind of late, after he realized its language had the elements of music,” says Nelson. “He understands that filmmaking can be rhythmic, it can have meaning in its duration and in its juxtaposition. It isn’t just about the subject, it’s also about how you are experiencing it.”
Even as an experienced hand with both archival media and experimental film, Harris’ creative process is informed by dialogue and an iterative, interactive research process.
Often, Harris shares his research through film and discovers how it fits through discussions with the community, something VSW hopes the presentation will demonstrate.
“This is really informed, active, and participatory research, which I think is brilliant and makes Harris’ work stand out,” says Nelson. “We really want as many people as possible to share in that experience and bring their questions, their reservations, their curiosity, doubts, aspirations, and all the things. It’s a space for expansive thinking and talking.
“And you don’t need a background in avant-garde filmmaking either,” she adds with a chuckle. “Everyone and anyone can contribute to the conversation as long as they’re interested.”
“Speaking in Tongues: In Dialogue with Christopher Harris” will be held on May 1, from 7 to 9 p.m., at VSW’s new King St. location. Tickets are free for members and $10 for non-members.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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