Visualizing Black Feminist Futures: The Spiritual worldbuilding of the LA Rebellion

• In Event: "Envisioning Freedom: Black Women’s Creativity, Memory, and Resistance Across Pan-African Landscapes"

Abstract

This presentation takes a deep look into the archive of films made by Black women in the movement known as the LA Rebellion. Started by Black graduate students at UCLA’s film program in the 1960s, the LA Rebellion sought to create films that foregrounded Black creators and worldviews. One particular motif that runs across many of the films is the representation and power of African diaspora ritual and religion. Drawing from African and diasporic traditions such as Lukumi, Ifa, and Hoodoo, filmmakers such as Barbara McCollough, Zeinabu Irene Davis, Ijeoma Iloputaife, and Julie Dash, created films that honored and enacted the power of ancestral and embodied memory. Through a close reading of four films, I explore the mosaic of African Diaspora spirituality and spiritual worldbuilding that these women engaged in and the particular Black feminist worlds they sought to create through film.

Author

• Elena Guzman, Indiana University Bloomington