#Handsworth Songs

[shihlun]

John Akomfrah / Black Audio Film Collective

- Handsworth Songs

1986

#Handsworth Songs #John Akomfrah #Black Audio Film Collective #british film #documentary #experimental film #1986 #hauntology #Mark Fisher

[o-the-mts]

90 Movies in 90 Days: Handsworth Songs (1986)

Every day until March 31, 2024 I will be watching and reviewing a movie that is 90 minutes or less. Title: Handsworth Songs Release Date: October 24, 1986 Director: John Akomfrah Production Company: Black Audio Film Collective Summary/Review: This impressionistic documentary centers on the September 1985 riots in Handsworth, a district in Birmingham, England home to immigrant communities of…

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#90 Movies in 90 Days #Birmingham #Documentary #England #Handsworth #Movie Reviews #Movies

[dutty-lingo]

💥John Akomfrah - Handsworth Songs [1986]💥

#duttylingo #windrush #slavery #windrushgeneration #transatlantic #handsworthsongs #visual art #video #John Akomfrah #Youtube

[mhansenmajortwo2022]

ARTIST RESEARCH BASED ON INTIAL IDEAS/INSPIRATION

Free Radicals (1958) by Len Lye 

My inspiration to scratch into 16 mm comes from this piece by Len Lye. The piece includes 16 mm scratches and a sound scape of traditional African music from the Birgimi tribe. We get a unique sense of movement through the scratches and how it is moving in relation to the music. Lye worked with movement in his art practice as a celebration of energy which is described with the title “Free Radicals”. The style of the scratches relates to tribal art and connects therefore with the use of music.  

The Unfinished Conversation (2012) by John Akomfrah

John Akomfrah is an important artist to mention in relation to the matters I am talking about. Worth to mention he was part of the Black Audio Film Collective and his film “Handsworth Songs” was quite signifcant to his career.  The Unfinished Conversation is a three screen video installation and it portrays Stuart Hall’s life and work. Extracted images from news footage of the 1960s, alongside Hall’s personal home videos and photographs, are presented to merge the past, present and future. 

I was inspired by the use of three screens that shows different aspects and then obviously the impact the work of Hall has had on my own personal experience. 

To Photograph the Details of a Dark Horse in Low Light (2013) by Adam BroomBerg and Oliver Chanarin

“The new images hijack the representational space of urban advertising to raise questions about the relationship between the social and the technical, and the possibility that politics is bound up with our material history.”

In 1975, French director Jean-Luc Godard called out Kodak film to be racist because he claimed that it was only made for white skin and he refused to use their film on an assignment in Mozambique. This gave the idea for Broomberg and Chanarin’s billboard campaign to use the Kodak Shirley cards as a reference for how white skin was labelled as “normal” and used as a point of reference to calibrate skin tone in a photograph. When Kodak did respond to these claims, the “Gold Max” film was made with the title “to photograph the details of a dark horse in low light.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d16LNHIEJzs

“Empire needs imagination to see the violent film. Empire needs Islands of imagination to see the light Empire needs violence to light its fire. Empire needs to see its islands, its isolation”

White Gaze by Michelle Dizon and Viet Le White Gaze is a book there was made in response to the National Graphic magazine. A magazine published in North America and Europe and known to document life and people. The two artists wanted to explore the history of photography with roots of the colonial power-relations and the creation of stereotypes. By looking at the original image and text, they were able to reframe and uncover an alternative history of each image. I was inspired by the how they have deconstructed the words that was originally used but into a meaning that make sense of today and how we look at colonialism.  Article: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/michelle-dizon-vi-t-le-white-gaze

[tibikegyurika-blog]

Handsworth Songs (1986)

#youtube

[nobrashfestivity]

John Akomfrah, Handsworth Songs, 1986

produced b Lina Gopaul and Black Audio Film Collective

#nobrashfestivity #john akomfrah #handsworth songs #film #screencaps

[spinphysicians]

Handsworth Songs, 1986

#handsworth songs #film #documentary

[ddzzaaii]

handsworth songs dir. black audio film collective

#film #handsworth songs #black audio film collective

[iej-ce]

#handsworth songs #john akomfrah

[vampire-canneberge]

still from John Akomfrah’s video ‘Handsworth Songs’, 1986

[justpracticingwritingalittle]

The Bedehouse of Ruth

So, the wayfarers were to fare their way again, and so it was decided that the Fratly's day would again be as a drop in a sea. There was some peace that came with the disruption of the passing band and its defeat at the hands of these Paupuroati strangers. The noise around was soft, to excuse the ever-present groans and hisses of the bereft, the sound of her vast sea, as if the shell were always pressed to her ears.

The Saucedaley Govlins had borne their tall, ill kithling on a bed of cowhide pulled taut across poles which each bore upon their shoulder, and many more more bodies surrounded them for love of her whom they bore. All these the Fratly had welcomed and bid stay, offering meats, meads, and shelter behind the Bedehouse for the guestly twinight as was custom in thanks to their advocates the Paupuroati. None accepted, save an handsworth who as gift devoted a month's service to Ruth's bead, and the rest went their way home to the wetlands north.

The sickly Hobgob was borne into Ruth's bedehouse and lain in a smallroom wherein all those deathly ill were laid if they so wished. Fratlies burnt smells and sprinkled oils and said the known sayings for release from pain and for knowing of its cause. But each day for 3 days, before an hour had passed of these rites, the Hobgob would scream from pain and the room would reach a boil so as to drive the Fratlies from it.

On the fourth day, a young Fratly, a Runner and Westerly Ernie in service of Ruth as bid by a Greater Fratly in the Starlands, shrewd of wit and cunning in Irmanly ambition observed upon the ground of the Ruthshall an other small shard of the Griefstone as it hid at meeting of wall and floor. He approached the Greater Fratly Ruthie with exceeding calm and lowered his head below hers.

"Great Questioner of Grief, the Hobgob's illness persists and more so affects the world around it as if it were a Holy Place, devoted to its own protection," for this knowledge his family held dear and kept through its many mothers. "The Curse knows not whose place this is, so by this stone may we introduce it to the Master of this House. I bid thee try this stone to the Hobgob's wounds, so the Curse may be told in calm of mind." [Note on blending of cultural images]

The Greater Fratly gave swift thought to this and bid raise the Runner's chin. "Good young learner, if by haps this goes as we will it, consider your service [thaning?] to Ruth as bid fulfilled, and that you have a writ to laud you and forthput you to good work wheresoever you bid."

The young Fratly wrapped the stone and spread wide the word of what they were to do, but wot not that the Fratlies of Smells, Songs, and Sayings had begun again to rid the room of the Curse and bring the heat out from its rage. The younger Fratly, come round, dispersed them saying "Be gone! Let us approach this Curse in calm of mind so it may know whose house beguests it." and none of the Fratlies had a mind to tell him what they had done afore his coming.

So the Fratly Runner unwrapped the stone and pressed it to the Hobgob's wounds, holes in fur burnt away by hard red scales. [86 - mirror image] The room rose quick to boil, and the Hobgob quivered and shook as a storm contained. Before the Younger Fratly, it seemed as though the Hobgob was born with three twins, each identical to her, rising and falling, shaking and intertwining, rising and walking as though fevered of mind. They spoke to each other in all three beautiful and powerful voices, in words the Young Fratly wot not. He was amazed by what he saw and was like to faint, but by his shrewd wit he bound the stone to the Hobgobs side and fled, letting not his sibs witness the sight, but he relayed to them all he saw and they were amazed, for they heard the voices and yet saw no shadows.

"If there be some young god or shossle here, let it talk awhile with Ruth so it may know where it lives." So they left the Hobgob unseen for three days more, hearing the conversations of the shossles wax and wane as a sea until the passing of the full moon, whereat the talking slowed to a stop, and no heat drew out from behind the [drapes? dreeps?]. The Younger Fratly was bid entry by the Hobgob, sat upright as one full and rested.

The Younger Fratly asked "Dear Hobgob, where went the two or three shossles that gat hold of your soul?" whereby the Hobgob laughed saying "There was no shossle, nor two, nor three, but surely thue heard me speak my dreams, as I am wont to do, for I spoke to my self as three other selves, in my like but unlike.

The Younger Fratly marveled at what he heard, for it was though he saw the Hobgob's dream as if it were his own. He relayed this to her, and she exclaimed "Good Heaven raise me, and methought I had poking my side a stone, but there be none here." And the Young Fratly marvelled again, for the stone he had bound had surely vanished.

Said a mourner from the outer hall, "Truly, you must be as one of those Wonderworkers of Lorr's songs, given aweful power to bless the bereft. Bless me, I plead, Maker of Images." and this was heard by all the mourners, hearts open to the alms of power.

[Okay, that's enough for now].

#working title star wars #lieflore #folklore #reaction writing

[shihlun]

Jah Shaka in the Black Audio Film Collective's 1986 film "Handsworth Songs".

#John Akomfrah #Black Audio Film Collective #Jah Shaka #Handsworth Songs #documentary #experimental film #1986

[filmantidote]

Majdhar (Ahmed Jamal, UK, 1984)

Free screening & discussion with filmmaker on Thursday January 28, 7PM CST

This groundbreaking drama was among the first to bring the inner lives and struggles of South Asian communities to popular audiences in the UK. With sensitivity and wry humor, Majdhar tells the story of Fauzia (Rita Wolf), a Pakistani woman struggling to build a life for herself in London after her arranged marriage falls apart. Produced by the Retake Film and Video Collective, the first all-Asian organization to emerge during the fertile “workshop era” of British collaborative independent filmmaking, Majdhar was broadcast on the BBC’s Channel 4 in 1984–a watershed moment in diasporic cinema that paved the way for later broadcasts like Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Launderette (1985) and the Black Audio Film Collective’s Handsworth Songs (1986).

RSVP here

#ahmed jamal #1984 #united kingdom #resources #majdhar

[ammonitetestpatterns]

handsworth songs is cool as a cross medium prism, whose intervening beam is interpretation cohering in the visual frame of motion, that accounts for the 1985 riots via reeled anecdotes and indexes of the event space that also act, in themselves, as a meter on the axiological physics of public memory

#text

[indifferenceswift]

as a white/caucasion person, i’ve learned to educate myself on the recent events regarding police brutality while also amplifying the voices of people of color. i’m going to leave links that have helped educate me on racism and police brutalities. i’ll also leave links to petitions, emails and phone numbers.

articles to help educate you:

breonna taylor’s death https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.amp.html

ahmaud arbery’s death https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thecut.com/amp/2020/05/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia-explainer.html

george floyd’s death https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/7010572/george-floyd-arrest-explained/amp/

tamir rice’s death https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2017/01/tamir_rice_shooting_a_breakdow.html

emerald black’s story https://www.google.com/amp/s/kutv.com/amp/news/nation-world/lawsuit-police-stomped-on-pregnant-black-womans-stomach-causing-miscarriage

joão pedro’s story https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/03/brazil-black-lives-police-teenager

police brutality timeline https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/long-painful-history-police-brutality-in-the-us-180964098/

movies to help educate you:

the battle of algiers (1966)- amazon prime & youtube

the murder of fred hampton (1971)- amazon prime & films for action

blacks brittanica (1978)- youtube

handsworth songs (1986)- youtube

do the right thing (1989)- youtube, vudu, google play, iTunes & amazon prime

malcom x (1992)- netflix, youtube, iTunes, google play, vudu & amazon prime

the glass shield (1994)- youtube, amazon prime, vudu, google play & iTunes

fruitvale station (2013)- tubi, youtube, google play, vudu, amazon prime & iTunes

selma (2014)- youtube, google play, vudu, amazon prime & iTunes

13th (2016)- netflix

i am not your negro (2017)- youtube, google play, vudu, amazon prime & iTunes

whose streets? (2017)- hulu, amazon prime, youtube, google & vudu

the hate u give (2018)- youtube, google play, vudu, amazon prime & hulu

just mercy (2019)- youtube, google play, amazon prime & vudu

when they see us (2019)- netflix

books to help educate you:

“so you want to talk about race” by Ijeoma Oluo

“how to be antiracist” by lbram X Kendi

“me and white supremacy” by Layla Saad

“the new Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander

“white tears, brown scars” by ruby hamad

“why i’m no longer talking about race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

“white fragility” by robin diangelo

“i am enough” by grace byers

ways you can help:

a link of different ways to help https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

youtube video you can watch that the money from ads is being donated to https://youtu.be/bCgLa25fDHM

minority owned businesses in minneapolis https://www.gofundme.com/f/small-businesses-on-lake-street?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

justice for joão pedro http://chng.it/6jWGGWMH6d

petition to demand justice for breonna taylor https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforbre-breonna-taylor-officers-fired?source=coc_main_website

national action against police brutality http://chng.it/7PQtTWG7CR

justice for emerald black http://chng.it/M6kLpHbrVd

an article full of different links https://www.bleumag.com/2020/06/03/30-blm-petitions-you-should-sign-right-now/

[spectacletheater]

Spectacle Radio ep.56 :: 06.01.20 :: Throw Away Your Laptops, Rally in the Streets

(Born in Flames) // Mark Stewart and the Maffia - Jerusalem (Handsworth Songs) // Sam Waymon - Seduction (Ganja and Hess) // Diamanda Galas - This is the Law of the Plague (Silence = Death) // David Wojnarowicz - (Silence = Death) // Trevor Mathison (Handsworth Songs) // Society Waits for You (Society) // Red Krayola - End Titles from Born in Flames // Can - Gomorrha (The Last Days of Gomorrah) // (Song of the Shirt) // (The People's Account) // - // Brian Mcomber - Afronauts // Tony Rémy - protest montage (A Passion of Remembrance) // Carl Vine - An Island (Bedevil) // (A Different Image) // (Drylongso) // Mukul - ALGO-RHYTHM // Smarty - Le chapeau du chef (Le President) // 911 Is a Joke (Welcome II the Terrordome) // Joseph Charles - The Neighborhood Bobby (A Passion of Remembrance) // Tony Rémy - Main Titles from A Passion of Remembrance // Mark Stewart and the Maffia - Jerusalem (Handsworth Songs) (reprise) // Kimyan  Law - Run Ames (Naked Reality) // (Drylongso) // J. J. Johnson - Top of the Heap // Wasis Diop - Ramatu (Hyenas) // End Titles from Welcome II the Terrordome

#Spectacle Radio #Newtown Radio #david wojnarowicz #protest #film score #soundtrack #black lives matter #mixtape