Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Series

IMAGING IMPROVISATION

May 15 – August 31

“Imaging Improvisation” considers the poetics of improvisation within the history of Black aesthetic expression. The series engages with Robert G. O’Meally’s theory of “antagonistic cooperation” – a lens that draws upon the ad-lib structure of a sonic jam session to explore its influence across Black art forms, from Jazz to collage. “Imaging Improvisation” reveals how these reactive and collaborative practices show up on screen. It recognizes the camera as a spectator and a collaborator, surreptitiously informing real-time decision making as an active participant in improvisational Black dance and music cultures. The series features archival performance recordings from the late 20th century that document these legacies within Hip-Hop and post-modern dance. It also spotlights – via contemporary moving-image works – the Internet’s role in improvisatory movement and sound genealogies, recognizing digital mediation as an instigator of annotation – a tool that not only incites viral gestural repetition but also inspires reinvention, catalyzing new dance forms altogether. Call-and-response is an embodied ritual depicted at the core of “Imaging Improvisation”: the series situates the participatory practice, teeming with riffs and ruptures, as a never-ending continuum within Afro-diasporic artistic lineages on screen and on stage. It’s here, cast in the limelight, that Black artists inflect the bounds of disciplinary imagination, igniting new languages that are porous, mutable, and resoundingly dialogic.

“Imaging Improvisation” will unfold throughout the summer, with monthly screenings at Anthology, as well as offsite performances. The July and August screenings will be announced in late May.

Guest-programmed by Daniella Brito, Curatorial Fellow at RADA Collaborative, a self-sustaining network of BIPOC artists, founded by filmmakers Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster, that uses cinema, visual art, and compelling visual storytelling to build narrative agency for creators of color. For more info about RADA Collaborative visit: https://radastudio.org/rada-collaborative/

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