Encore II (Radioactive)

Directed by Isaac Julien

Encore II (Radioactive) is a short film study inspired by a character from the writings of Octavia Butler, an African American science fiction writer, best known for her recurring exploration of genetic manipulation, contamination and hybridity and David Bowie’s Starman. The film re-digitises footage shot in Iceland and northern Sweden from Julien’s film True North, a work based on the story of African-American explorer Matthew Henson, one of the key members of Robert E. Peary's 1909 Arctic expedition, and arguably the first individual to reach the North Pole. In Encore II (Radioactive), the protagonist is recast as a cyborg played by Vanessa Myrie. Using super-8 footage from Julien’s earlier video experiments which were shot in 1980, whilst he was studying at St. Martin’s School of Art, the film manipulates the Icelandic landscape and its surroundings, imbuing them with a visual and sonic electronic aura that dislocates the setting from a specific time and place.