Movies:

  • 1983
    Dream City

    Dream City (1983)

    Dream City

    01983HD

    Ulysses Jenkins composed "Dream City" from documentation of a twenty-four-hour performance he organized in collaboration with David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, and Senga Nengudi. A discordant, absurdist, and poetic montage, the video weaves together ja...

    Dream City
  • 1978
    King David

    King David (1978)

    King David

    01978HD

    This is a documentary of David Hammons prior to his leaving the Los Angeles arts community. This video covers the artist's creative strategies at that time. It served as both an interview and video performance by David Hammons....

    King David
  • 1989
    Self Divination

    Self Divination (1989)

    Self Divination

    01989HD

    In his Video Griots Trilogy, Jenkins creates a series of video meditations on history and culture. Using archival footage, photographs, image processing, and an elegiac soundtrack, he pulls together diverse strands of thought to construct an "other" ...

    Self Divination
  • 1991
    The Nomadics

    The Nomadics (1991)

    The Nomadics

    01991HD

    In his Video Griots Trilogy, Jenkins creates a series of video meditations on history and culture. Using archival footage, photographs, image processing, and an elegiac soundtrack, he pulls together diverse strands of thought to construct an "other" ...

    The Nomadics
  • 1983
    Cake Walk

    Cake Walk (1983)

    Cake Walk

    71983HD

    This video documents Cake Walk, an installation and performance piece by artist Houston Conwill, staged in November 1983 at Linda Goode Bryant's pioneering gallery Just Above Midtown (JAM), at its second (downtown) location on Franklin Street. The pi...

    Cake Walk
  • 2006
    Planet X

    Planet X (2006)

    Planet X

    02006HD

    Writes director Ulysses Jenkins: "This video takes the 'Planet X' myth and interfaces it with the Katrina tragedy in New Orleans, LA, based upon their similar natural disaster principles. With a proclamation of prophecy spoken by avant garde jazz mus...

    Planet X
  • 1979
    Two-Zone Transfer

    Two-Zone Transfer (1979)

    Two-Zone Transfer

    01979HD

    Director Ulysses Jenkins calls his film a "dreamscape in which the dreamer awakens to a visitation of three minstrels who tell the story of the development of African American stereotypes in the American entertainment industry."...

    Two-Zone Transfer
  • 2007
    Notions of Freedom

    Notions of Freedom (2007)

    Notions of Freedom

    02007HD

    Ulysses Jenkins charts the history of jazz—what he calls “the first true American art form"—from its beginnings in New Orleans and the American South to the classic work of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington and through the major innovations of Ornet...

    Notions of Freedom
  • 1981
    Inconsequential Doggereal

    Inconsequential Doggereal (1981)

    Inconsequential Doggereal

    01981HD

    Initially created as an editing exercise for his students at UCSD, Jenkins’ Inconsequential Doggereal mixes poetic narrative fragments of self-shot footage with moments ripped from the unending flow of TV news, advertising, and entertainment. The ima...

    Inconsequential Doggereal
  • 1983
    Without Your Interpretation

    Without Your Interpretation (1983)

    Without Your Interpretation

    01983HD

    This performance took place in 1983 at the Art Dock on Center Street in Los Angeles. Like much of Jenkins's other work, it involved multiple performers, including Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi. Here Jenkins addresses social and geopolitical issue...

    Without Your Interpretation
  • 1994
    Secrecy: Help Me to Understand

    Secrecy: Help Me to Understand (1994)

    Secrecy: Help Me to Understand

    01994HD

    An investigation of the American media portrayal of black men as misunderstood tragic figures throughout recent history. Secrecy is an African concept which is a ritual element of understanding. The art that conceals and reveals. Which defines an ind...

    Secrecy: Help Me to Understand
  • 1985
    Peace and Anwar Sadat

    Peace and Anwar Sadat (1985)

    Peace and Anwar Sadat

    01985HD

    This composition provides a tribute to the world's most formidable peace activist, Anwar Sadat. The video paints visions of issues concerning Earth's flirtation with the apocalypse. Composed in four movements, featuring images and text interwoven wit...

    Peace and Anwar Sadat
  • 1990
    Mutual Native Duplex

    Mutual Native Duplex (1990)

    Mutual Native Duplex

    01990HD

    In his Video Griots Trilogy, Jenkins creates a series of video meditations on history and culture. Using archival footage, photographs, image processing, and an elegiac soundtrack, he pulls together diverse strands of thought to construct an "other" ...

    Mutual Native Duplex
  • 1980
    Remnants of the Watts Festival

    Remnants of the Watts Festival (1980)

    Remnants of the Watts Festival

    01980HD

    The Watts Summer Festival is one of the oldest African American cultural festivals in the United States. The Watts community founded the event in 1966, one year after the Watts uprising. Ulysses Jenkins's film captures moments from the festival, incl...

    Remnants of the Watts Festival
  • 1983
    Z-Grass

    Z-Grass (1983)

    Z-Grass

    01983HD

    Experiemental video using Datamax graphics software. This piece is a very early example of the use of computer animation in video art. ZGrass refers to the programming language used to create the images....

    Z-Grass
  • 1969
    In The Midnight Hour

    In The Midnight Hour (1969)

    In The Midnight Hour

    01969HD

    A studio visit by David Hammons to John Outterbridge's studio. Recorded by Ulysses Jenkins as Hammons proclaims an arts affliction....

    In The Midnight Hour