Acclaimed English director and screenwriter John Akomfrah OBE visited the MFAEDA Carpentry Shop on October 26th to discuss his approach to filmmaking and to participate in critiques of MFA student work. Akomfrah also screened and discussed his previous work and artistic practice with the greater Duke and Durham communities at the Nasher Museum of Art on October 27th.
A founding member of the Black Audio Film Collective, Akomfrah’s work has been shown in galleries including Documenta (Germany), the De Balie (Holland), Centre George Pompidou (France), the Serpentine and Whitechapel Galleries (UK); and The Museum of Modern Art (USA). In 2000, Akomfrah was awarded the Gold Digital Award at the Cheonju International Film Festival, South Korea, for his innovative use of digital technology.
John Akomfrah is currently a Governor of Film London, a visiting professor of film at the University Of Westminster (United Kingdom), and an officer of the Order of the British Empire.
The trailer for Akomfrah’s newest film The Nine Muses, can be seen below. Mnemosyne, a shorter gallery version of The Nine Muses was screened at the Nasher on October 20th.
Akomfrah’s visit was presented as part of the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts Visiting Artist Series, in collaboration with the Nasher Museum of Art, the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), and the Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI).
