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The militant image: A ciné-geography

Gray, with Kodwo Eshun, conceived, edited and wrote the Introduction of this special issue of Third Text. It brings together new international research on the aesthetics and cine-cultural politics of the non-aligned liberation struggles and revolutions of the late 20th century. The collected essays construct an alternative cartography of cine-cultural practices. Gray and Eshun call into question the present political constitution through critical analysis and artistic responses to the aesthetics of tri-continental liberation. Following the work of Okwui Enwezor, Kristin Ross and Nicole Brenez, among others, they argue for new theoretical vocabularies through which to analyse and articulate the subjectivities, aesthetics and strategies of militant filmmaking in order to map a transnational public sphere constituted through affiliation to tri-continental politics and experimental film language.

The issue includes new translations and reprints of key texts and manifestos selected by the editors, and theorises how the digital afterlives of militant films can re-animate moments of political intensity, renewing their relevance to contemporary art. ‘The militant image’, contributes to an important emergent body of work by artists, filmmakers and curators (including Hito Steyerl, The Otolith Group and Renée Green), retrieving and re-assessing militant avant-garde work to function as a resource for contemporary, anti-capitalist artistic activity.

The publication was the first step in Gray’s current curatorial research project, which includes co-organising a series of related international conferences, including ‘The Paths to Revolt: Cinema, Images and Revolutions’, Musée du quai Branly, Paris (2011); ‘The Militant Image’ series of screenings and discussions in collaboration with The Otolith Group, Iniva, London (2011); and ‘The Militant Image II – Insubordinate Acts – Two Films by Manuel Faria de Almeida’, Iniva, London (2012). Gray has delivered numerous lectures on the subject, notably as part of the Cinematic Migrations public lecture series curated by Renée Green at MIT, USA (2012).