Madubuko Diakité, For Personal Reasons, Still from film, 1972 Photo: Madubuko Diakité
Symposium – “Transmissions”
Film screenings and talk with Madubuko Diakité
1.12 2024
Malmö
Date: 1 December
Time: at 14.00 – 16.30
Location: Loading Dock
Language: English
Tickets: No pre-registration required. The symposium is included in the admission fee. Free admission for those 18 and under.
Contact: Curator of Learning Susanne Lindblad
The event is a cooperation between Black Archives Sweden and Moderna Museet Malmö.
Through his films, Diakité interrogates themes and topics that render visible black narratives and voices. His films released in the 1970s – 1980s offered an alternative visual representation of black people in Sweden and the diaspora and remain relevant yet today. During the event, we will be screening two of Diakité’s films: “For Personal Reasons” (1972) and “The Invisible People” (1972), followed by a conversation with curator Ulrika Flink. Other participants in the symposium are Tina Campt, Lydia Östberg Diakité, Joanna Johnson, André Taylor and DJ VV.
The event is part of Black Archives Sweden’s 3-day symposium, 29 November – 1 December, for the exhibition “Transmissions”, showing at Skånes konstförening from 16 November to 19 January 2025. “Transmissions” is curated by Tawanda Appiah and Ulrika Flink.
See the full program over the three days in the FB event “Symposium Transmissions”.
“Transmissions” is a group exhibition that broadcasts connections across generations through photography, sound, video, installation, painting, and performance. The exhibition departs from Black Archives Sweden’s “Family Archive” collection, which is dedicated to sustaining diasporic life through experimentation, care, and communal activation. “The Family Archive” calls attention to aspects of black history and the present day that are often overlooked by state archives.
Artists participating in “Transmissions”: Ikram Abdulkadir, James Barnor, Theresa Traore Dahlberg, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Lydia Östberg Diakité, Makda Embaie, Manju Jatta, Linda Lamignan, Eric Magassa, Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose.
Program
At 14.00 – 14.10 Introduction by Jonelle Twum (Black Archives Sweden) and curator Tawanda Appiah (Skånes konstförening)
At 14.10 – 15.10 Film screening of “For Personal Reasons” (28:33 min) and “The Invisible People” (30:59 min)
Break
At 15.30 – 16.10 Talk with Madubuko Diakité led by curator Ulrika Flink
The event ends at 16.30
Artists participating in “Transmissions”: Ikram Abdulkadir, James Barnor, Theresa Traore Dahlberg, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Lydia Östberg Diakité, Makda Embaie, Manju Jatta, Linda Lamignan, Eric Magassa, Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose.
The event will be held in English. The event is a collaboration between Black Archives Sweden and Moderna Museet Malmö, and is organised together with curators Tawanda Appiah and Ulrika Flink.
About the films
For Personal Reasons (1972)
28:33 min
In 1970, aspiring Harlem filmmaker Madubuko Diakité (born 1940) brought a lightweight 16mm camera into a Black Panther demonstration in New York. Inspired by Jean-Luc Godard and cinéma vérité, Diakité wanted to take his camera into the streets to show reality as he saw it. The result was the documentary “For Personal Reasons” where Billy Curtis (Morgan Freeman’s younger brother) plays a young man who has had enough of racist police, and, influenced by Malcolm X, decides to take up arms. Diakité originally got the idea for the story from a newspaper article. With its theme of police brutality, its unforgiving voiceover, and unseen Black Panther footage, “For Personal Reasons” is a rare cinematic gem that deserves its place in the canon of African-American films.
The Invisible People (1972)
30:59 min
Diakité’s unique historical document, produced together with Gary Engman and Nordal Åkerman, depicts the difficult working conditions of foreign students, immigrants, and especially the African diaspora during the 1970s.
Thanks to Story AB.
About the participants
Madubuko Arthur Robinson Diakité is a documentary filmmaker and human rights lawyer. Born in the United States, he moved to Sweden in 1968 and received a PhD in film studies from Stockholm University. In 1992, he received a licentiate degree in law from Lund University. Since then, Diakité has conducted research on human rights at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and has been active in Swedish organizations against discrimination. He has published numerous articles on film and human rights in international publications and has led a number of projects for the rights of the African diaspora.
Tawanda Appiah is a Zimbabwean curator, writer and researcher based in Malmö, Sweden. His research-centred practice often revisits history to make sense of the contemporary milieu. He is the curator at Skånes konstförening, alongside his independent practice, and previously held the position of Curator of Education & Public Programming at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Appiah has curated several exhibitions, public programmes and interventions including FLIGHT (Malmö Konsthall, 2023) which featured works by Kudzanai Chiurai, Frida Orupabo and Eric Magassa. He was part of the 2024 jury for the Liljevalchs konsthall vårsalong. Appiah is an avid reader and sits on various boards including Paletten Art Journal.
Ulrika Flink is the Artistic Director of Konstfrämjandet Stockholm. As a curator, she seeks to explore the collective by merging artistic, theoretical, and political knowledge systems. This approach aims to facilitate contexts that create meetings where one can recognize themselves in others and, based on that insight, speak and act in the world. She has curated exhibitions both in Sweden and internationally, including the Nordic art biennial Momentum 9 (2017) and the Borås Art Biennial (2021) together with Amanprit Sandhu. Current projects include the Gwangju Biennale, Swedish Pavilion (2024) titled Inseparable Distance, co-curator for the Çanakkale Biennial in Turkey (2024), and curator for the exhibition Ingrid Pollard: Being in Landscapes (2024) in Stockholm. Ulrika has previously worked at Tensta Konsthall, Autograph ABP (London), Tate Modern, and Bonniers Konsthall, and holds a master’s degree in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London.
Jonelle Twum is the founder and artistic director of Black Archives Sweden. Twum is also an artist and filmmaker, whose work often explores questions about the conditions of visibility/invisibility, memories, and histories from a black feminist perspective.
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