Directed by Ulysses Jenkins • 1980 • United States
In 1972 and ’73, Ulysses Jenkins and the collective from Venice, California, known as Video Venice News documented the Watts Summer Festival—a major Black cultural event established in 1966 to commemorate the Watts Rebellion that jolted the Los Angeles community the year before. In addition to capturing an electrifying performance by the funk band War, this historically important tape examines the issue of covert surveillance that has long defined the relationship between the state and the Black community in America.
Up Next in Ulysses Jenkins: Video Griot
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Inconsequential Doggereal
Directed by Ulysses Jenkins • 1981 • United States
Ulysses Jenkins continues his investigation of mass-media saturation in this kaleidoscope of VHS-recorded TV flotsam, menacing lawnmowers, footballs, and the artist’s own waggling butt.
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Cake Walk
Directed by Ulysses Jenkins • 1983 • United States
This video documents “Cake Walk,” an installation and performance piece by artist Houston Conwill, staged in November 1983 at Linda Goode Bryant’s pioneering New York gallery Just Above Midtown. The piece refers to the cakewalk dance that develo...
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Dream City
Directed by Ulysses Jenkins • 1983 • United States
A video companion to a twenty-four-hour group performance organized by Ulysses Jenkins, DREAM CITY collages live music, poetry, and dance into a pulsating kaleidoscope of color and sound. Frequent Jenkins collaborators Maren Hassinger, Senga Nen...
