The film-maker and installation artist on bridging the gap between art and cinema, and what he learned from the Baader-Meinhof gang
What first drew you to making art?
Punk. When I was about 15, I made friends with some hippies who lived close to the estate where I grew up. One of them turned out to be Astrid Proll (1), although I didn't know it at the time as she had a pseudonym. They taught me about art and photography. I discovered punk, situationism (2), and the connection between art and politics. I never looked back.
What was your big breakthrough?
Attending Central St Martin's, then a sort of Oxbridge of art schools. Also, being funded by Channel 4 to create the Sankofa Film and Video Collective (3), and making the film Looking for Langston (4).
Have you considered becoming a more mainstream film director?
I viewed myself as that when I made Young Soul Rebels (5). But that was a long time ago and the film industry was very different. The main challenge now is to bring one's language from visual art to commercial cinema without compromising it. When certain voices – Derek Jarman, Steve McQueen – are able to do that, really exciting things happen.
Where do you find inspiration?
In contemporary events. My work Ten Thousand Waves (6) is about the fact that people came from such a distance to meet such a tragic end. My new project, Playtime (7), is about capital: the crash and the current global crisis.
Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
Friends and family. But I'm lucky to have a partner, Mark Nash, who has been a film-maker and producer. He understands what I do.
Is there an art form you don't relate to?
No. Film combines so many of the arts – music, theatre, opera, dance – that they become part of the vocabulary.
Complete this sentence: At heart, I'm just a frustrated…
Painter.
What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?
Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But the Rent by Gwen Guthrie. The people who work with me in my studio bought me it as a present.
What's the worst thing anyone has ever said about you?
The worst experience I've had was at a talk by Spike Lee in London, quite a long time ago. It was a mainly black audience and someone said: "When will we have our own Spike Lee?" Someone else said: "We have one – his name's Isaac Julien." And then the whole audience hissed. I put it down to a kind of homophobia. It was painful, but it reminded me of the importance of remaining a dissident voice.
How would you like to be remembered?
Do people get remembered? I see myself as being very much in the now.
CV
Born: London, 1960.
Career: Works span film (Looking for Langston, Young Soul Rebels) and video installations. Was nominated for the 2001 Turner prize. His installation Ten Thousand Waves is currently at MoMA, New York. Playtime, his latest work, is at London's Victoria Miro Gallery from January.
Low point: "When Thatcherism got a hold on things and independent film-makers were starved out of existence."
High point: "Everything since then."
Footnotes
(1) Founding member of the Baader-Meinhof gang, who in the 1970s fled from Germany to London, under the alias Anna Puttick. Back to article
(2) A libertarian form of Marxism. Back to article
(3) A group founded in 1983 by five young, black film-makers, including Julien. Back to article
(4) His 1989 film about gay men in Harlem. Back to article
(5) Julien's 1991 coming-of-age drama set in 1977 London. Back to article
(6) This nine-screen film installation, starring Maggie Cheung, was inspired by the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockle-pickers tragedy. Back to article
(7) Playtime, a film installation featuring stories set in London, Reykjavik and Dubai. Back to article
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/nov/26/isaac-julien-film-portrait-artist
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