Radical Encounter

Episode 2: Strong Female Character

Patricia Silva talks with Nayland Blake, an American artist, writer, and educator. One of their mottos is: “You are responsible for the continuation of the culture you love. Keep it alive through your actions.” On a hot afternoon in August of 2016, Patricia met Nayland in Brooklyn. Trained in sculpture and known for installation and video work addressing biracial, queer and subcultural identities, Nayland is also a famously good thinker, and an eloquent speaker. In addition to discussing the role of the artist, intimacy, art, and digital culture, Nayland also shares their beginnings as a visual artist, how their work is beginning to interact with technology.

Episode 1: 20 Years After

Sofia Varino talks with Cheryl Dunye and producer Marc Smolowitz during the 2016 Berlinale film festival at Dunye's hotel in the center of Berlin, where she was giving press interviews. Like most people, Sofia first discovered Dunye's work through Dunye's influential 1996 film Watermelon Woman, now a classic of queer cinema. The film won a Teddy Award at the 1997 Berlinale, and in 2016 the festival organized a special screening to mark the Watermelon Woman twentieth anniversary restoration. 2016 marked an important year in Dunye's career, when she also received a Guggenheim fellowship, and she is currently working on her new feature film Black is Blue. Her visit to Berlin served as the perfect opportunity to reflect on queer, feminist and African-American filmmaking, and to talk about what an ethics of collaboration in queer art practice might entail. Cheryl spoke openly about her struggles as a filmmaker and about the significance of art in our convoluted world.

Episode 1: 20 Years After

Sofia Varino talks with Cheryl Dunye and producer Marc Smolowitz during the 2016 Berlinale film festival at Dunye's hotel in the center of Berlin, where she was giving press interviews. Like most people, Sofia first discovered Dunye's work through Dunye's influential 1996 film Watermelon Woman, now a classic of queer cinema. The film won a Teddy Award at the 1997 Berlinale, and in 2016 the festival organized a special screening to mark the Watermelon Woman twentieth anniversary restoration. 2016 marked an important year in Dunye's career, when she also received a Guggenheim fellowship, and she is currently working on her new feature film Black is Blue. Her visit to Berlin served as the perfect opportunity to reflect on queer, feminist and African-American filmmaking, and to talk about what an ethics of collaboration in queer art practice might entail. Cheryl spoke openly about her struggles as a filmmaker and about the significance of art in our convoluted world.