Occasional Brief Glimpses of Beauty (OBGB) presents DIGGING IN THE CRATES, a video essay and philosophy lecture about the dynamics of cultural memory in 1990s hip hop, the way in which Golden Era hip hop sampling is defined by a “dual embrace and rejection of what came before” (in the words of musicologist Tom Perchard).

THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY
dir. John Akomfrah, 1996
45 mins. United Kingdom.
In English.

SATURDAY, MARCH 2 – 7:30 PM followed by discussion with Zed Adams
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
TICKETS HERE

Whereas some archive-based documentaries are backwards-looking in that they aim to make sense of the present through reflecting on our relation to past media (such as Bill Morrison’s DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME), and others are forwards-looking in that they aim to document the present in order to create an archive for the future (such as John Wilson’s HOW TO WITH JOHN WILSON), John Akomfrah’s THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY is simultaneously backwards- and forwards-looking in proposing that sifting through the detritus of past media holds the clues for coping with the future. Akomfrah’s video essay combines sci-fi speculation with interviews with Juan Atkins, Octavia E. Butler, George Clinton, Samuel R. Delany, and others.

“A tantalizing blend of sci-fi parable and essay film [as well as] a fine primer on the aesthetics and dynamics of contemporary Afrofuturism—it was the first film to include the then-recently minted term.” – New York Magazine

THESES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SAMPLING

In this 30 min. lecture, philosophy professor Zed Adams will discuss the relevance of Walter Benjamin’s work for appreciating the aesthetics of 1990s hip hop. His lecture will be accompanied by a supercut of interviews with hip hop producers taken from BEAT DIGGIN’ (Jesper Jensen, 1997), SCRATCH (Doug Pray, 2001), DEEP CRATES I & II (Jeremy Weisfeld, 2004 & 2007), and BEAT KINGS (Ray Stewart, 2006).

This is the second installment of the OCCASIONAL BRIEF GLIMPSES OF BEAUTY (OBGB) documentary series. Special thanks to Icarus Films.