""There's a certain kind of energy that could be produced by a performative idea of communication, and that's what I'm interested in," said the Academy Award-winning director of "12 Years a Slave." "I'm not the kind of person who stands for an hour reading from a piece of paper. I think the audience needs more, and I feel I need to give more."
"I also feel the dialogue - the back-and-forth clash of two stones making a fire - could be thought-provoking for the audience as well as the participants. McQueen is recognized internationally for producing work that explores painful and challenging histories and exposes the fragility of the human condition. He directed the feature films "Blitz" (2024) and "Hunger" (2008), as well as the documentaries "Uprising" (2021) and "Occupied City" (2023)."
Live performance is framed as a source of energy exceeding a podium lecture, emphasized through a program titled "Pulse" that combines film, musical performances, and dialogue. The series foregrounds performative communication and back-and-forth exchange as a means to provoke reflection. One session centered on FBI files related to Paul Robeson, using the video work End Credits to project thousands of highly redacted, declassified documents concerning Robeson and his wife, Eslanda Goode Robeson. The event featured four performers reading sections of those files while visuals were projected. A post-performance conversation included curatorial and scholarly participants.
Read at Harvard Gazette
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