John Akomfrah – Why History Matters | TateShots

John Akomfrah talks about his practice as a filmmaker, how he navigates between the gallery and cinema, what compelled him to make his 2015 work Vertigo Sea, and the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky. In this TateShots, John also talks about his commitment to the “philosophy of montage”, his interest in archive and documentary and the importance of history. John is an artist and filmmaker well known for his work with the London-based Black Audio Film Collective, which he co-founded in 1982. He made his debut with Handsworth Songs which went on to win the Grierson Award for Best Documentary in 1987. Today he runs the production company Smoking Dog Films and continues to produce films for a variety of spaces.