American Minefield: A John Sims Trilogy

In collaboration with The Ringling, SFF presents a retrospective of films by John Sims as well as a conversation with the artist. John Sims, a Detroit native, is a Sarasota-based conceptual/multimedia artist, writer, and activist who creates art and curatorial projects spanning the areas of installation, performance, text, music, film, and large-scale activism, informed by mathematics, design, the politics of white supremacy, sacred symbols/anniversaries, and poetic/political text. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC News, USA Today, NPR, The Guardian, Nature, and Scientific American, among others.

2020: (Di)Visions of America (59 mins) 

Responding to Covid 19, American policing and the pushback on Confederate iconography and systemic white supremacy, this filmed performance and theatrical installation examines these themes in the context of both Black Lives Matter and global citizenship. 

The AfroDixieRemixes: The Confederate Memorial Chapel Listening Session (64 mins)

This documentary film captures a series of responses to artist John Sims’ 13 year AfroDixie Remixes project, a collection of 14 tracks that remixes, remaps, and cross-appropriates of the song Dixie (the anthem of the Confederacy) in the style of the following Black-music genres: spiritual, blues, gospel, jazz, funk calypso, samba, soul, rhythm & blues, house, and hip-hop.

The third film, Recoloration Proclamation (30 mins) captures the artist's 20 years journey in confronting the Confederate symbols, the propriety of south Heritage in pursuit of restorative justice and national healing.