Sugarcoated Arsenic

Andre

required viewing for folks who think champagne liberalism will wipe clean the hands of America’s original sin.

Alex Fields3.5

Another Everson film that shows a clear James Benning influence but uses those tools in a fresh and original way. Here as in Landscape Suicide there’s a long, highly realist (documentary in style more than narrative cinema, as if we’re watching the original act) recreation of an historical monologue followed by a repetition of the same speech, this time using the actual historical recording I assume, over a montage of scenes from campus life. But here the work is embedded in Black campus life at the university where the filmmaker actually works and teaches, and the actors in the recreation seem to be students and employees of that campus. It’s a self-exploration of a community’s own history and identity. Very interesting in that way, and the speech is very well written and delivered. I’m glad Everson ends the thing on a clip of an explicitly revolutionary Black Power march but there’s something of a disconnect between a speech from high ranking faculty at a wealthy institution and that suddenly moment of radical politics.

Andrew4.0

Dialectic echo chamber