L. Franklin Gilliam

L. Franklin Gilliam

Washington, D.C

Most Known for...

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Now Pretend 1992

Now Pretend is an experimental investigation into the use of race as an arbitrary signifier. Drawing upon language, personal memories and the 1959 text, "Black Like Me", it deals with Lacan's "mirror state" theories of beauty and the movement from object to subject.
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Sapphire and the Slave Girl 1995

This film is loosely based on the 1950's British detective film SAPPHIRE, in which two Scotland Yard detectives investigate the murder of a young woman who is passing for white. Referencing everyone from Marlowe to Shaft, SAPPHIRE AND THE SLAVE GIRL situates its analysis in the persona of the hard-boiled detective in order to highlight transgressions of identity and location. Featuring a multifarious cast of identity-shifting Sapphires, this fast paced genre-bash visualizes and problematizes how identity is negotiated and performed within urban spaces.
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Apeshit 1999

Employing footage from an obscure 8mm film trailer for Battle for the Planet of the Apes to highlight the unstable relationship between the real, historical past and the distant, imaginary future, this project revolves around a central question: Is alien-ness indeed the metaphor for the 20th Century as power relationships have been embodied within our subconscious? Is there a relationship between these forgotten formats and the discontinued political ideologies that they depict? Transferred from Super-8 and then processed using a combination of high-end digital and vintage analog processing techniques, Apeshit emphasizes the contradictory references found in both the original text and its adaptation. Serving up Battle for the Planet of the Apes as proof, Apeshit puts forth tolerance as an outmoded technology.