Long before Ang Lee and his gay cowboys ever visited Brokeback Mountain, there was Isaac Julien's Long Road to Mazatlan. In 1999, Julien, in collaboration with Venezuelan dancer and choreographer Javier De Frutos, produced the 20-minute, three-screen video installation, which follows two Latino lovers as they struggle with sexual identity in the American Southwest.
The project, nominated for the prestigious Turner Award, was one of many shown when the artist visited Duke last week to participate in a retrospective of his most prominent work.
Despite its cultural relevance, Long Road represents quite a departure for an artist best known for his work in black cultural theory.
"I wanted to do a piece of work that was not indexically linked to me in terms of its ethnicity," Julien said. "I wanted to second- guess my audiences. That was quite deliberate."
Julien has made a career of defying the norm, consciously avoiding the world of mainstream film. "I basically turned my back on Hollywood when I [turned down] an offer to do a picture in 1992," he said. "The problem with the Hollywood studio model is that you have to fit into that model."
Instead, Julien has turned his attention to smaller narrative films and experimental video installations. "I think I've always made the films I've wanted to make," Julien said. "Some of them have been better than others, but what can I say?"
The retrospective highlighted the variety of subjects and styles that have intrigued Julien throughout the years-from toying with the idea of genre conventions in Baltimore (2003) to examining the validity of a genre in Baadasssss Cinema (2002), a documentary on Blaxploitation films that evolved from a course he taught at Harvard University. While his films are often politically engaged, they often transcend his personal experiences. "I think the politics and intentionality of what the person is making is just as important as or more important than their ethnicity or gender," said Julien.
But politics alone do not guide Julien's work. "I really see myself as an artist, and I'm working in moving images, and I'm specialized in film," said Julien. "There's quite a lot of work that's conceptually interesting but it's maybe not visually interesting." He said his work distinguishes itself because it addresses both these concerns.
Perhaps that's why Julien is able to co-exist within the art community and the film industry. His work is frequently shown in galleries and museums, yet he has also been featured at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1992, he served as a jury member for the documentary division at the Sundance Film Festival. "Really, I live in three worlds," said Julien-in academics, art and film. While he may never be a household name, that doesn't seem like too bad of a place to be.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.