The curator of Chicago’s Black Harvest Movie Pageant discusses her imaginative and prescient for cinema as encoded reminiscence and why this yr’s program wants no theme
Jada Amina is a filmmaker, musician and cultural curator who has spent the previous three years shaping the imaginative and prescient of Chicago’s Black Harvest Movie Pageant. As curator of the competition, now in its thirty first yr, Amina has reworked the annual occasion into what she describes as a reunion and sacred house for Black storytelling. A graduate of the College of Artwork Institute of Chicago, the place she additionally works, Amina approaches her curatorial follow with an interdisciplinary sensibility that pulls from her Louisiana Creole heritage, her Baptist upbringing and her dedication to creating archives for future generations. The 2024 competition runs from Nov. 7 by means of Nov. 16 on the Gene Siskel Movie Heart.
That is your third yr curating Black Harvest. What was your guiding imaginative and prescient for this yr’s program?
This yr we didn’t have a theme. I’ve been curating for 3 years. Our first go-round, I carried a theme, which felt like a brand new factor I used to be embarking on. Then the second yr, our thirtieth, was that benchmark for us, so we celebrated that milestone. This go-round, I actually really feel referred to as by this work, and I feel the theme is Black Harvest itself, which is rising movie alongside repertory movie, basic cinema that’s groundbreaking and difficult the chances and limitations of cinema. You’ll see a variety of cinema that makes you query, is that this something I’ve ever seen earlier than? Is that this a movie? Is it a music video? Simply actually asking your self what can movie be.
How do you strategy choosing movies from the lots of of submissions you obtain?
Yearly we open our portal by means of Movie Freeway, and we had about 500 submissions come by means of this yr. Whittling it all the way down to 9 shorts packages and eight function movies was no simple feat. I’m referred to as by a sure degree of thoughtfulness and consideration that the filmmakers are providing, not solely to me as a viewer however to what I think about is that this collective viewership. When this movie lineup will get printed, it’s this reflection of our collective consciousness, the place we’re at as a individuals, as a society. For these of us who need to be in communion and fellowship with each other, these are the parents I’m contemplating after we current these movies.
How do you stability honoring Black movie traditions whereas pushing artistic boundaries?
We’re at all times innovating our custom. I don’t use lard, however I’m positive my ancestors had been utilizing lard. I exploit beef tallow. Down the road, my household turned Muslim, so I don’t eat pork. However I’m nonetheless going to make my greens. That’s very metaphorical, nevertheless it’s grounded on this philosophy I carry. Sankofa, attain one educate one, get again and fetch it. This concept that we go the custom by main by instance. These philosophies are held not solely by me however by the spirit of Black people throughout the diaspora. We stock this ancestral reminiscence. The tales being advised on this yr’s lineup do job of balancing custom with innovation. Learn any slave narrative and also you’ll be like, was this written in 1992? It feels very related. We’re not so totally different from our ancestors. We simply have new situations.
What function does the competition play in broader cultural conversations?
The filmmakers are individuals dwelling on the identical rock as us, in order that they’re responding to the time. There’s a lot synchronicity as a result of it actually boils all the way down to, should you actually pay attention, should you actually witness, we’re all type of saying the identical issues. As my mama says, each tradition has a rice and hen dish, and it’s all good. There’s no want for a theme as a result of we’re all in response to at least one one other, in response to the paradigms we’re dwelling inside or beneath, the administration we’re dwelling beneath. These tales tether us to the occasions. They function historic file. Movie is simply encoded reminiscence. If you concentrate on a tough drive or analog movie itself, it’s only a file. This competition serves as a file.
What do you hope audiences take away from this yr’s competition?
I would like people to really feel impressed to do their huge one. Individuals will come as much as me and say they need to get into movie. I’m like, properly, do it. The Q&As are so particular as a result of you’ll be able to ask a director how they began, they usually’re going to inform you in the future they simply did it. They didn’t watch for the million greenback price range. This movie price $500, nevertheless it made it into the competition. That is about financial system. That is additionally about liberation of the self. It takes quite a bit to place your self on the market and produce a factor. Individuals might not help it. That’s what people are actually saying after they’re like, I actually need to do that, however I don’t know if I’ll achieve success. See this particular person doing it. There’s an opportunity you need to get it finished.
What makes an excellent movie?
Movie equals feeling for me. Good movie is feeling. I’m a feeling-based particular person. I’m a musician, I like music, so it’s at all times like, how does one thing make me really feel? Once I overlook that I’m watching a movie and I’m utterly invested within the characters, the place I really feel like I might do crimes for the protagonist, that’s movie. Or even when I really feel like I need to damage the protagonist. That emotional cost, which is a non secular conduit, that’s once I know you simply conjured one thing. You conjured up a response for me, and that takes quite a bit.
Mixing music and movie
Past her curatorial work, Amina lately launched her new tune Twin, out there on YouTube and streaming platforms. The monitor, which dropped the identical week as Black Harvest, explores discovering real connection within the digital age. Describing herself as post-jazz and really post-neo-soul, Amina grew up as a baby of hip-hop, influenced by her dad and mom who met on the second Warehouse in Chicago. Her interdisciplinary strategy to artwork informs each her music and her curatorial imaginative and prescient. The tune’s launch timing, although not initially deliberate to coincide with the competition, created what she calls divine alignment, giving her momentum as she celebrates Black storytelling throughout a number of artistic platforms.
