On the occasion of Isaac Julien's exhibition 'What Freedom Is To Me', Lumière is screening a series of films and documentaries that provide context to the work of the globally celebrated British artist. 

Included in the series are three of Julien’s most important works: ‘Looking For Langston’, also on view the exhibition 'What Freedom Is To Me', ‘Young Soul Rebels’, an early film in which Julien portrays the interaction between British cultural youth movements of the late seventies and ‘Baadasssss Cinema’. The latter documentary is about Blaxploitation, the first film genre in which black actors played leading roles. This documentary is shown in a double bill with the Blaxploitation classic ‘Shaft’.

The series opens with the biographical documentary ‘The Stuart Hall Project’, about the academic and writer Stuart Hall, whose work was a source of inspiration for Julien. Finally, on the eve of the exhibition's finissage (mid-August), the classic ‘Paris Is Burning’ will be screened. ‘Paris Is Burning’ is an influential portrait of the ballroom culture and African American and Latino queer communities in 1980s New York. Along with Isaac’s work, the documentary is part of a wave of films that showed a new, vibrant black queer aesthetic at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Programme Lumière

Tuesday 14 May 2024, 19:30
The Stuart Hall Project + introduction by prof dr. Eliza Steinbock
In collaboration with Studium Generale Maastricht

Thursday 21 June 2024, 19:30
Double Bill: BaadAsssss Cinema + Shaft

Tuesday 2 July 2024, 19:30
Looking for Langston + panel discussion
In collaboration with QueerCon

Saturday 20 July 2024, 21:00
Young Soul Rebels

Friday 16 August 2024, 21:15
Lumière Open Air Film Festival: Paris Is Burning

Discount

Visitors of Bonnefanten will receive a discount on one film screening of choice on presentation of the flyer including a museum sticker.

This programme was created in collaboration with Lumière.