Perfect Film

1985, 23:57 min, color and b&w, sound

"PERFECT FILM presents some out-takes of history, in this instance of the assassination of Malcolm X. This is a record of events literally preserved as found from the cutting room floor. Carelessly strung on a reel, I bought it for $5 on Canal Street.

Malcolm X was murdered by Elijah Muhammid and Louis Farrakhan through agents in New Jersey and we all knew it but they were never prosecuted because the FBI was too implicated, and Louis Farrakhan controls the cult to this day. The murderers were allowed to continue while new news tore our attention away. After all, both the Black Muslims and US government wanted Malcolm on ice.

The "news" – the worldwide events of the day – is a daily tidal sweep and very little of what we learn can stick, and move us to take action towards the control of events. Anything may be revealed for a day and then it must clear the stage immediately.

Question: are we real? or scattered, and unable to retain and construct a consecutive history for ourselves. Adrift, shards among the shards, our amnesia is exactly the enemy of the art that matters to me, having to do with the making of mind and the ongoing gathering of mindfulness."

– Ken Jacobs