Monday October 8, 2018 7 PM Communications 150 (Studio C)
An evening of short films by Akosua Adoma Owusu
co-sponsored by Porter College and Film + Digital Media
The politics of representation depends on dismantling monolithic, reductive, and “Western”-centric
renderings of exoticism and otherness in identities. This presentation looks at work by filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu, whose films addresses a collision of identities, where the African immigrant located in the United States has a triple consciousness. This third identity or consciousness of the African immigrant transitions between avant-garde cinema, fine art, and African tradition to complicate the nature of identity. Her documentary essay and experimental film work ranges with its varied use of archival material, direct animation, and staged scenes to examine the construction of historical memory and cultural identity.
Akosua Adoma Owusu is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker, producer and cinematographer whose films address the collision of identities. Owusu re-interprets W. E. B. Du Bois’ notion of double consciousness to create a third cinematic space for representing feminism, queerness and African immigrants interacting in African, white American and black American culture. She was a featured artist at the 56th Robert Flaherty Seminar programmed by renowned film curator and critic Dennis Lim. In 2015, she was named by IndieWire as one of ‘6 Avant-Garde Female Filmmakers Who Redefined Cinema.’