Looking for Langston: Isaac Julien in conversation with Hilton Als
‘I think that one of the things that linked us was that we were really looking for something that explained how we had come to be…’ – Hilton Als
Artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien and Pulitzer Prize winning critic and author Hilton Als first met in the late 1980s, when Julien was researching his seminal film Looking for Langston. Als went on to become one of the writers of the 1989 film, which is a lyrical exploration of the private world of poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist Langston Hughes (1902–1967) and his fellow black artists and writers who formed the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s.
Filmed on the occasion of Isaac Julien’s exhibition of photographic works “I dream a world” Looking for Langston, held at Victoria Miro in the summer of 2017, Julien and Als discuss the genesis of the film, their shared love of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, the work’s relationship to black gay desire, to AIDS and to questions of discrimination, and how, as Julien says, ‘these questions return to haunt the present’.
About Looking for Langston
Shot in sumptuous monochrome Looking for Langston is a lyrical exploration – and recreation – of the private world of poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist Langston Hughes (1902–1967) and his fellow black artists and writers who formed the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s. Directed by Isaac Julien while he was a member of Sankofa Film and Video Collective, and assisted by the film critic and curator Mark Nash, who worked on the original archival and film research, the 1989 film is a landmark in the exploration of artistic expression, the nature of desire and the reciprocity of the gaze, and would become the hallmark of what B. Ruby Rich named New Queer Cinema. Looking for Langston is also regarded as a touchstone for African-American Studies and has been taught widely in North American universities, colleges and art schools for nearly 30 years. Most recently it has been shown in a special display at Tate Britain and as part of Masculinities: Liberation through Photography at the Barbican Art Gallery.
About Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien is as acclaimed for his fluent, arresting films as for his vibrant and inventive gallery installations. One of the objectives of his 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 them to construct a powerfully visual narrative.
About Hilton Als
Hilton Als became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1994, a theatre critic in 2002 and chief theater critic in 2013. He began contributing to the magazine in 1989, writing pieces for The Talk of the Town. Before joining The New Yorker, Als was a staff writer for the Village Voice and an editor-at-large at Vibe. He has also written articles for The Nation, The Believer, The New York Review of Books, and 4Columns, among other publications, and has collaborated on film scripts for Swoon and Looking for Langston. His books include The Women, 1996, and White Girls, 2013. In 2017, Als was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Looking for Langston signed limited-edition book
Designed by Olu Odukoya Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston is a lavishly illustrated, signed, limited edition book by the internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker, featuring newly-conceived photographic works in addition to storyboards from Julien’s seminal 1989 film, never before published contemporary Polaroids and rare archival material.
Looking for Langston limited-edition soundtrack, produced by The Vinyl Factory
Produced in a limited-edition, the vinyl LP soundtrack to the film features the poetry of Langston Hughes, Bruce Nugent and Essex Hemphill set to blues and jazz as well as 1980s house music and features the voices of Toni Morrison and Stuart Hall.
