Public Screening #06: Skip Norman: selection of films, March 22, 2018, Arsenal

Skip Norman, Helke Sander and Harun Farocki in BRECHT DIE MACHT DER MANIPULATEURE (1967/68) from Helke Sander

Thursday, March 22, 2018
7 p.m.
Arsenal, Cinema 2

Skip Norman, who was born in Baltimore in 1933 and died in Washington DC in 2015, was a student at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB) in 1966, the first year of its existence. He went on to become a director and worked on 27 dffb productions. The titles of his films all hint at the struggle to assert an Afro-American identity in a world shaped by whites. CULTURAL NATIONALISM (1969), BLACK MAN’S VOLUNTEER ARMY OF LIBERATION(1970) or STRANGE FRUIT(1970) named after the song by Billie Holiday. BLUES PEOPLE (1968) adapted parts of the play “Dutchman” by his peer LeRoi Jones (who later became Amiri Baraka). “They say, ‘I love Bessie Smith’ and don’t even understand that Bessie Smith is saying, ‘Kiss my ass, kiss my black unruly ass.’” We will be screening five of his short films from the archives of the Arsenal Cinema and the Deutsche Kinemathek.

Blues People FRG 1968
16 mm English OV 18 min

Cultural Nationalism FRG 1969
16 mm English OV 11 min

Black Man’s Volunteer Army of Liberation USA 1970
16 mm English OV 43 min

Strange Fruit USA 1970
16 mm English OV 29 min

Washington D.C. November 1970 USA 1970
16 mm English OV 18 min