Alfreda's Cinema presents, Otherwise, Neutralize

Marking its sixth month in residence at BAM, and as a postmortem to the presidential election, Alfreda’s Cinema deconstructs another American custom. Otherwise, Neutralize is a case study of the strength of political assassinations as tools of suppression. Once a shock to the masses, the frequency of public murder, either liberator and/or civilian, death sensationalized has quickly become eerily digestible. Shades of Black death seldom encounter legislative action and allyship wanes while cries for justice and change never come. We are left numb to this pain when the rent is due. How do we survive the fragility of Black and brown life left to the whims of deputized actors and authoritative systems? John Akomfrah's 1986 film Handsworth Song and Miguel Secades 1988 work A Square is Born together act as a unit of the anatomy of martyrdom's public response and demonstrated pattern, no longer just conspiracy. 

Followed by a discussion with Cinemovil's Ali Jaffery.

Films include:

Handsworth Song (1986) 
Dir. John Akomfrah

A Square is Born (1988) 
Dir. Miguel Secades