The Leopard

• 2010, 35mm, color, file/HD transfer, sound, 20’
• director Isaac Julien
• developed in collaboration with Russell Maliphant
• starring Vanessa Myrie, Russell Maliphant Dance Company e Richmond-Niamkey Ezolia, Aka Kablan Francis,
• Ba Abdou Laye, Buutol, Dieng Sergigne Ibra Lö
• photograohy Nina Kellgren BSC
• sound design Andy Cowton
• editing Adam Finch, The Offline Editing Company, London
• producer Paula Jalfon
• sponsored by Helgar de Alvear, Mark Falcone, Jean Pierre Lehmann, Metro Pictures, NewYork, Martin Z. Margulies, Linda Pace Foundation, Victoria Miro Gallery, The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, Denver

Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2012

The three featured films started out as multi-channel audiovisiual installations projected on large screens, and are linked by their settings – architectural and natural landscapes – which are both background and thematic motives, closely bound to the presence of a wandering enigmatic figure incarnated by actress Vanessa Myrie. While Baltimore constitutes a selfstanding work, True North and The Leopard (which in the installational version was titled Western Union: Small Boats, 2007) belong to a trilogy.
 

Presented in 2010 at the 67th Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, The Leopard is a revisitation of the installation Western Union: Small Boats (2007). Produced in collaboration with noted choreographer Russell Maliphant, the film was shot along the coasts of Sicily and at Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi, where Luchino Visconti set the celebrated ball scene of II Gattopardo. In this work, Julien returns to the theme of travel, specifically the painful stories of “clandestine”migrants escaping across the Mediterranean.

Isaac Julien

Artist and filmmaker, Julien was nominated for the Turner Prize (2001) and he was the recipient of the Performa Award (2008), the prestigious Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts (2001) and the Frameline Lifetime Achievement Award (2002). His work Paradise Omeros was presented as part of Documenta11 in Kassel (2002) and in 2003 he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Kunstfilm Biennale in Cologne for his single-screen version of Baltimore.

Isaac Julien was visiting lecturer at Harvard University’s Schools of Afro-American and Visual Environmental Studies and a faculty member of the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Arts. He was also a research fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and is currently a professor of Media Art at Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, Germany. Julien is represented in museum and private collections throughout the world, including Tate, Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York,

Centre Pompidou, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington and the Brandhorst.

www.isaacjulien.com