Barbara McCullough

Barbara McCullough
Born 1945 (age 72–73)
Nationality American
Occupation Director
Production Manager
Visual Effects Artist
Years active 1979-present

Barbara McCullough (born 1945) is a director, production manager and visual effects artist whose directorial works are associated with the Los Angeles School of Black independent filmmaking. She is best known for Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (1979), Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space (1980), Fragments (1980), and World Saxophone Quartet (1980).[1]

Early life and education

McCullough was fascinated by dance, but she felt that she had to look outside it for a way to express her creativity within the constraints of her role as a college student enrolled at UCLA and as the mother of two children.[2] She was also interested in history, psychology and literature, particularly the work of Zora Neale Hurston.[3] It was her love for photography drew her to experimental film and video, where she wanted to become the "Hurston of video" and to “tap the spirit and richness of [her] community by exposing its magic, touching its textures and trampling old stereotypes while revealing the untold stories reflective of African American life.”[4] McCullough would go on to earn her B.A. in Communications Studies and her M.F.A. in Theater Arts, Film and Television Production at UCLA, and her work secured her position as an influential representative of the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers.[5] The women filmmakers of the Los Angeles School shared the movement's desire to communicate their ideas about black people's history and experience in film or video, but they also often sought to emphasize women's experiences, and McCullough's work in particular was preoccupied with the themes of creativity and ritual.[6]

Career

McCullough's Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification is inspired by African spiritualism as it portrays a woman ritually stirring a mixture of soil and other substances in a calabash, then cups the mixture in her hands, and then blows it away. The film has been controversial because it then depicts the woman going back into the crumbling structure of the building behind her and urinating on the ground.[7] McCullough explained that the woman was intended to symbolize all displaced people from developing countries who are forced to live according to the values of other cultures.Her act of defiance in a strange land asserts her freedom over her own body. [8]

Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space consists of separate episodes documenting Los Angeles artists as they create works of improvisational art. McCullough interviews the artists and asks them about their ritual and creative processes, and her subjects include painter and sculptor Kinshasha Conwill; poet Kamau Daa'ood; sculptor David Hammons; sculptor N'senga Negundi; musician Raspoeter Ojenke; and painter and sculptor Bettye Saar.[9] In an interview about her film, McCullough stated that "ritual is a symbolic action" capable of releasing the subject from herself to allow her to "move from one space and time into another." [10]

She uses this as a means of self-determination and self-representation. As many of the other L.A. Rebellion filmmakers express in their works; it is crucial for a community to define itself on its own terms. McCullough chooses to represent the rituals and creative processes of these artists to allow them to speak for themselves. Despite allowing the interviewees the space within the film, McCullough occupies the lens and space outside of and surround each subject. She uses this space to speak for herself, to allow herself to become a subject. Under this lens, her work takes on a new meaning that allows the viewer to uncover each layer of the film. The filmmaker no longer exists as a viewer, they become as much a part of the experience for the audience as the actors.

McCullough has completed substantial work toward a documentary about Black jazz pianist and composer Horace Tapscott (Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot), who stayed in Los Angeles even after attaining a national reputation so that he could continue to help the Watts community where he grew up.[11] The film highlights Tapscott's musical education and career within the Watts Central Avenue Jazz tradition. Art Tatum, Earl Hines and Erroll Gardner were all mentors to the young Tapscott in the 1940s, when Central Avenue hosted a number of jazz clubs.[12] The film includes a series of interviews with Tapscott, footage of his performances as a solo artist and with his combo, archival material that documents the historical contributions of African Americans to the cultural life of Los Angeles, and excerpts of a lecture on jazz and the blues that Tapscott delivered to a group of Los Angeles teachers.[13]

After two decades working in film production and visual effects in Los Angeles, McCullough is now Chair of the Visual Effects Department at Savannah College of Art and Design. [14]

References

  1. ↑ Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1995). "McCullough, Barbara". In Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Women Film Directors. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 248–249. ISBN 0313289727.
  2. ↑ Jackson, Elizabeth (May 1991). "Know how to do something different". Jumpcut (36): 94–97. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Jackson, Elizabeth (May 1991). "Know how to do something different". Jumpcut (36): 94–97. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  4. ↑ Jackson, Elizabeth (May 1991). "Know how to do something different". Jumpcut (36): 94–97. Retrieved 3 October 2015. "Barbara McCullough". LA Rebellion Filmmakers. UCLA Film and Television Archive. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Faculty". Savannah College of Art and Design. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Springer, Claudia (February 1984). "Black Women Filmmakers". Jumpcut (29): 34–37. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  7. ↑ Masilela, Ntongela (2003). "Chapter 2: Women Directors of the Los Angeles School". In Bobo, Jacqueline. Black Women Film & Video Artists. Routledge. pp. 21–41. ISBN 1135225427.
  8. ↑ Springer, Claudia (February 1984). "Black Women Filmmakers". Jumpcut (29): 34–37. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  9. ↑ Masilela, Ntongela (2003). "Chapter 2: Women Directors of the Los Angeles School". In Bobo, Jacqueline. Black Women Film & Video Artists. Routledge. pp. 21–41. ISBN 1135225427.
  10. ↑ Quaintance, Morgan (July–August 2015). "LA Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema". Art Monthly (388): 22–23. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  11. ↑ Springer, Claudia (February 1984). "Black Women Filmmakers". Jumpcut (29): 34–37. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Masilela, Ntongela (2003). "Chapter 2: Women Directors of the Los Angeles School". In Bobo, Jacqueline. Black Women Film & Video Artists. Routledge. pp. 21–41. ISBN 1135225427.
  13. ↑ Masilela, Ntongela (2003). "Chapter 2: Women Directors of the Los Angeles School". In Bobo, Jacqueline. Black Women Film & Video Artists. Routledge. pp. 21–41. ISBN 1135225427.
  14. ↑ "Faculty". Savannah College of Art and Design. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.