The Video Griots Trilogy

The Video Griots Trilogy

Ulysses Jenkins
1989-91, 36:20 min, color, sound
Self Divination
Ulysses Jenkins
1989, 11:58 min, color, sound

Self Divination speaks poetically about origins and the realities of the African diaspora.

Mutual Native Duplex
Ulysses Jenkins
1990, 11:53 min, color, sound

Mutual Native Duplex is a video essay on the mutual alliances between Native and African Americans which celebrates the "neo-American model" of inter-cultural cooperation that grew out of these encounters.

The Nomadics
Ulysses Jenkins
1991, 12:29 min, color, sound

The Nomadics takes a sweeping overview of peoples from across the world and develops an intuitive and aesthetic sense of history which can posit a global identity amongst people of color.

Description

In this trilogy, Jenkins creates a series of video meditations on history and culture. Using archival footage, photographs, image processing, and an elegiac soundtrack, he pulls together diverse strands of thought to construct an "other" history. Self-Divination speaks poetically about origins and the realities of the African diaspora. Mutual Native Duplex is a video essay on the mutual alliances between Native and African Americans which celebrates the "neo-American model" of inter-cultural cooperation that grew out of these encounters. The Nomadics takes a sweeping overview of peoples from across the world and develops an intuitive and aesthetic sense of history which can posit a global identity amongst people of color.