Kahlil Joseph, New Media, and the New Black Cinema: A Case for Situating Kahlil Joseph's Audiovisual Work Within the Theoretical Frameworks of African Film

Abstract

Abstract:This article explores the various ways that African American filmmaker Kahlil Joseph represents contemporary experiences of the African diaspora in his new media work, Belhaven Meridian (2010). Reflecting the present world system's complex network environment, Joseph's screen text is a node within numerous theoretical networks, oscillating within disparate conceptual frameworks concurrently. Weaving the strands of these divergent theories together with the "crossroads" concepts from Harry J. Elam Jr., Kennell Jackson's Black Cultural Traffic (2005), and Akin Adesokan's Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics (2011), this article scrutinizes Joseph's work through intersections of emergent music video and new media theories, as well as film theories from African, American, and European perspectives. The article argues that such an approach enriches the didactic possibilities of their respective and, simultaneously, entwined theoretical branches.