“Black Fire UVA: Films by Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold.” May 21, 2019
-
- Sugarcoated Arsenic
-
- Fastest Man in the State
-
- We Demand
Co-presented with Vertical Features
Over the last half-dozen years, Kevin Jerome Everson and Claudrena N. Harold have collaborated with their students on a series of films that examine the history of African American students and faculty at Charlottesville’s University of Virginia. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1825, but not admitting African American students until 125 years later, UVA has had an entanglement with white supremacy long before the far-right rally of August 2017 turned international attention onto the school and the city. These films do not directly address this white supremacy, rather they centre instead on the initiatives of African Americans at the school. Re-enacting historical moments as if they were recently unearthed documents of the times, Everson and Harold focus both on black empowerment and celebrations of daily life. From the Anti-Vietnam War protests led by the first African American Student President James R. Roebuck; through the community building of Vivian Gordon, director of the Black Studies program in the 1970s; to the daily routines of student athletes in competitive sports programs, these films foreground the role of higher education in creating a community of strength and change, momentarily apart from but primed for engagement with the outside world.
Six films from the Black Fire UVA series will be screened in this programme, including a sneak preview of a new collaboration. They will be preceded by 40th & State, a film about the aftermath of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till and subsequent mourning within his Pentecostal Church, made by recent UVA graduate and Black Fire participant Micah Ariel Watson.
Kevin Jerome Everson, Claudrena N. Harold, Micah Ariel Watson and Kahlil I. Pedizisai in person.
40th & State dir. Micah Ariel Watson | USA 2018 | 14 min. Digital
How Can I Ever Be Late dirs. Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold | USA 2017 | 5 min. 16mm on Digital
Fastest Man in the State dirs. Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold | USA 2017 | 10 min. 16mm on Digital
70kg dirs. Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold | USA 2017 | 3 min. 16mm on Digital
We Demand dirs. Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold | USA 2016 | 11 min. 16mm on Digital
Sugarcoated Arsenic dirs. Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold | USA 2013 | 21 min. 16mm on Digital
Black Bus Stop dirs. Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold | USA 2019 | 9 min. Digital
Q&A Session available to watch here.