Memory Pictures
In this Arts Council film, the lives and themes of work by South Asian artists are explored.
Poetically narrated by Meera Syal, this film is a mixed-media collage of the work of Asian artists, surrounding a documentary revue on the work and career of gay photographer Sunil Gupta. Gupta is best known for his series of photographs taken around London in the 1980s featuring gay and lesbian couples in long-term relationships - part of a reflective process marking the end of his own ten-year relationship.
The documentary reviews the themes across his work, as Gupta provides insight into the ways his art challenges the canonical practice of documentary photographers. Gupta's work questions traditional documentary conventions, such as using black and white photography as a 'humanising' colour palette and as the tendency of the media to gaze on LGBTQIA+ protestors from a perspective behind police lines. Instead he chooses to intercut personal colour photographs with monochromatic pictures from inside protests.
The documentary becomes increasingly autobiographical as Gupta offers personal insight into aspects of his work, telling us about his familial history of migration and the roles and burdens placed on him by his family.
This film was made as part of the Arts Council-funded Black Video Arts Project, a series of films covering young Black and Asian artists charting the Black Arts Movement of the 1980s. It is one of the earliest films directed by influential artist, activist, and filmmaker Pratibha Parmar, two years before her 1991 film A Place of Rage.
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Black & S. Asian Arts Filmmaking
Exploring the rich and extensive shared history of Black and South Asian filmmaking.
Collaboration has been at the heart of the work of Black and South Asian artists, from the Black theatre movement of the 60s and 70s to the film and video workshops of the 80s and 90s. This reflects an emphasis on collectivism as a way of sharing resources, as well as a political expression.
Britain's Black and South Asian communities have long shared similar themes and dealt with shared experiences in the present, while often making potent creative connections with artistic traditions in Africa, South Asia and Caribbean. This selection of videos, mostly drawn from the 1980s and 90s, encompasses a rich variety of genres and forms.
