Interviews, reconstructions and archive footage tell the story of the life and work of the highly influential anti-colonialist writer Frantz Fanon, author of Black Skin, White Mask and The Wretched of the Earth and his professional life as a psychiatric doctor in Algeria during its war of independence with France.

Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask is a seventy-minute drama-documentary film we produced in 1996. The impetus for the film project was to restore to academic and artistic discourses a recognition of both the originality and contradictory nature of this major thinker. It was initially conceived as a reflection on the revival of interest in Fanon’s ideas in black visual and performance arts. The black arts movement in Britain and North America had sought a more substantial basis for reflection on the black body and its representations. In development, the film’s mandate became broader to include other aspects of Fanon’s influence and legacy. –IsaacJulien.com

Director

Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien (born 1960, London, England) is an installation artist and filmmaker.

Julien graduated from St Martin’s School of Art in 1985, where he studied painting and fine art film. He founded Sankofa Film and Video Collective, and was a founder member of Normal Films in 1999.

Julien came to prominence in the film world with his 1989 drama-documentary Looking for Langston, gaining a cult following with this poetic exploration of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. This following was expanded in 1991 when his film Young Soul Rebels won the Semaine de la Critique prize for best film at the Cannes Film Festival.

One of the objectives of Julien’s work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting these to construct a powerfully visual narrative. Thematically, much of his work directly relates to experiences… read more