Cauleen Smith: Breaking Cinema

A compact introduction to Cauleen Smith’s experimental, imaginative films incorporating science fiction, Afrofuturism and contemporary Chicago culture

Since making her first feature while a student at UCLA, Los Angeles-based artist Cauleen Smith (born 1967) has rooted her work firmly within the discourse of mid-20th-century experimental film. Drawing from structuralism, moving images and science fiction (combined with elements of the more recent Afrofuturist movement), her works offer a phenomenological experience for both its participants and its audience. A portable, introductory volume, Breaking Cinema is a quick yet thorough guide to Smith’s filmmaking. It features stills from a decade of works, including Space Is the Place (her tribute to the Sun Ra Arkestra), Remote Viewing and Lessons in Semaphore. Art historian Romi Crawford, professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, elucidates this critical phase of the artist’s career, and how Smith recasts film history in the context of the artistic and cultural ferment of Chicago’s South Side.