Commentary
Haunting in Akosua Adoma Owusu's Short Experimental Films
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15415674 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kendall Kendall (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 232-232 |
| Publication date | 2013-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Black Camera (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1536-3155 • E-ISSN: 1947-4237 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/blackcamera.5.1.232 |
| OpenAlex | W2073939817 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
I an ontological sense, the motion picture is an amalgamation of still images that becomes animated as the filmstrip moves through the machinery of the projector. The act of film projection creates ethereal images on the screen as it revives the ghosts of a frozen past; film is haunting and haunted. Ghanaian/Ameri can filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu exploits such aesthetics and more through her use of experimental forms.1 In this commentary I reflect on my own experience of an unsettling presence, a haunting, that inhabits Owusu’s work, flickering in and out of the frame, off and on the soundtrack. When I viewed her films Intermittent Delight (2007), Me Broni Ba (2009), Drexciya (2010), and Anancy (2012), a slide show and musical installation at the Studio Museum of Harlem’s Fore exhibit, I felt a haunted sensation, an awareness of something intangible that appears and disappears, unable to be fully pinned down. Intermittent Delight and Me Broni Ba exemplify my sense of Owusu’s haunting, and through close analy sis of her film style I will attempt to locate their phantoms. Me Broni Ba actually haunts my own career, making periodic appearances. I first saw the experimental documentary when I worked as one of the programmers at the 2009 Silverdocs Film Festival. We included it in the final program, where it inspired a lively questionandanswer session between Owusu and the audience at both of its screenings. I have watched the film countless times since then, using it in lectures and workshops as well as programming it in other film series. Owusu’s work so far privileges the short form.2 Intermittent Delight is almost five minutes long, while Me Broni Ba is just under thirty minutes. Despite her films’ short duration, they convey an intensity that is visual, aural and conceptual. Owusu explores how blackness is intertwined with displacement and memory and how they engage with the construction of in di vidual and collective identity.3 In Intermittent Delight and Me Broni Ba, Owusu takes
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Film director · Movie theater · Musical · Studio · Style (visual arts · Visual arts · African history and culture studies · Cinema and Media Studies
| Highly cited | No |
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