LIVELaura Flanders & Friends - Jacqueline Woodson & Catherine Gund: Breathing Through Chaos & the 'Meanwhile'
James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Muhammad Ali, Nina Simone -- these are a few of the artists featured in the new film "Meanwhile", from National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson and Emmy-nominated producer and director Catherine Gund. Their meditations on grief, art, breath and more are beautifully woven together as the film poses the question, how do you keep breathing amidst the chaos? Catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd, Gund and Woodson tap into our shared existence. The artists featured in the docu-poem, with a haunting soundtrack by Meshell Ndegeocello, work through questions of race, political violence, resistance and identity -- so much of what shapes our lives and relationships. "This is not a love letter to this country but to us inside this country," says Woodson in the film. "We see us. We love us. We make eye contact and nod to us". In this conversation with Laura Flanders, the trio of longtime friends discuss the film from Aubin Pictures, the losses they experienced in the 80s, and how the arts and poetry can compel us to enact change. Can we reclaim the "meanwhile"? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on hers.". . . Having lost people so early and in such quick succession and under such an awful oppressive situation [of AIDS in the 80s], . . . each one of those hit so hard. We wrote and we made movies, and we had these elaborate memorials, and we did things to process and grieve. I am really holding on to that approach to death and dying as we get older, because I don't wanna ever not care." - Catherine Gund" Here is a film that's trying to say, 'It's okay to be still and engage in this and have your feelings inside of this.' . . . Let's sit in this and let's have the catharsis that comes with going through the wall, as opposed to stopping at the wall or trying to climb over it." - Jacqueline Woodson Guests: Catherine Gund: Producer & Director, Meanwhile; Filmmaker & Founder, Aubin Pictures; Jacqueline Woodson: Writer & Performer, Meanwhile; Author, Brown Girl Dreaming; Founder, Baldwin for the Arts
Series Website: https://www.lauraflanders.org
Recent and Upcoming Airings
11.25/18 10:30 am 11.35/25 6:00 am