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Memory Room 451 (1996) [N/A]

Release Date:
January 1, 1996

Original Title:
Memory Room 451

Genres:
Documentary | Science Fiction

Production Companies:
Black Audio Film Collective

Production Countries:
United Kingdom

Ratings / Certifications:
 N/A

Runtime: 25

Overview from TheMovieDB

The subject matter of Memory Room 451 is the cultural and historical significance of 20th-century hairstyles – the Afro, the conk, dreadlocks – in Black communities on both sides of the Atlantic. Akomfrah has disguised this exploration as a science fiction story – in the manner of the groundbreaking writers profiled in The Last Angel of History – while providing a bravura display of the aesthetics of video art in the 1990s. The tale of visitors from the future who gather dreams from unwitting subjects in order to construct a history of the Black diaspora both defamiliarizes Akomfrah’s ongoing project and points to the danger that extracting history from memory can be a kind of expropriation.

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Production

Director:
John Akomfrah

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