Now Pretend

In Loop
Beursschouwburg, Brussels
The Work We Share
© Now Pretend (L. Franklin Gilliam, 1991)

Now Pretend

L. Franklin Gilliam, United States, 1991, 10’

Now Pretend is an experimental investigation into using race as an arbitrary signifier. Drawing on language, personal memories, and the 1959 text “Black Like Me”, it deals with Lacan’s mirror stage, and the movement from object to subject. 

Leah Franklin Gilliam’s film looks at how totalising definitions function for or against women of colour—a visual and sonic effort to (re)collect the self.

The restoration and new digitization of Now Pretend was completed by Cinenova as part of their preservation project The Work We Share—funding provided by Arts Council England.

The film is shown in loop. Free entry.

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