LIMITLESS, A FILM SERIES

John Akomfrah — Director of The Last Angel of History (1996).

Born in Accra, Ghana, in 1957, to radical political activist parents, John Akomfrah was widely recognized as one of the most influential figures of black British culture in the 1980s. An artist, lecturer, and writer as well as a filmmaker, his twenty-year body of work is among the most distinctive in the contemporary British art world, and his cultural influence continues today.

As a teen, Akomfrah was a Super 8 filmmaker and enthusiast. With several underground ciné-clubs in London, he helped bring Asian and European arthouse cinema, militant cinema from Africa and Latin America, and American independent and avant-garde cinema to minority audiences.

In 1982, Akomfrah helped found the seminal, cine-cultural workshop the Black Audio Film Collective. He directed a broad range of work for the group, including fiction films, tape slides, single-screen gallery pieces, experimental videos, music videos, and documentaries.

Since 1987, Akomfrah's work has been shown in galleries including Documenta (Germany), the De Balie (Holland), Centre George Pompidou (France), the Serpentine and Whitechapel Galleries (UK); and The Museum of Modern Art (USA). A major new retrospective of Akomfrah's gallery-based work with the Black Audio Film Collective premiered at the FACT and Arnolfini galleries (UK) and is now making a tour of galleries and museums throughout Europe. In 2000, Akomfrah was awarded the Gold Digital Award at the Cheonju International Film Festival, South Korea, for his innovative use of digital technology.

He has been an artist-in-residence at universities including, most recently, New York University, and a jury member at festivals including, most recently the BFI London Film Festival, UK, and the Tarifa International Film Festival, Spain. He has lectured at institutions including CalArts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the London Institute. He was a member of the Arts Council Film Committee, and Governor of the British Film Institute from 2001 through 2007. John Akomfrah is currently a Governor of Film London, a visiting professor of film at the University of Westminster (United Kingdom), and an officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Tianna S. Paschel — Speaker

Tianna S. Paschel is an associate professor in the Department of African American Studies and Sociology (by courtesy) at the University of California, Berkeley where she also earned her doctoral degree. She served as co-director of the Black Studies Collaboratory, which brought together artists, activists, locals, and scholars to amplify the interdisciplinary, political, and world-building work of Black Studies. Her research and teaching focuses on race, inequality, development and globalization in the Americas, with a special interest in how Black communities mobilize to create a better world.
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She is the author of the award-winning book Becoming Black Political Subjects (2016) which analyzes Black social movements in Colombia and Brazil and their successful but complex struggle for land rights, affirmative action and other ethnoracial policies. Her work can be found in the American Journal of Sociology, the Du Bois Review, SOULS: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, and Ethnic and Racial Studies. She is also co-author of Normalizing Inequality: How Californians Make Sense of the Growing Divide with Cristina Mora (2026). She is a mom, urban farmer, and a dancer who has practiced, taught and performed Afro-Diasporic dance for decades.

Rae Shaw — Speaker

Rae Shaw is a Black female writer-director whose work has been evolving to stretch the boundaries of how Black women see and are seen in the world. Her work concentrates on lifting the experiences of Black women and women of color by telling stories that dimensionalize us in spaces that have sought to diminish, exploit and punish us through stereotypes. Her screenplays have won honors at top international screenwriting competitions, and her film work has screened at top film festivals. She is the author of the recent book, THE SHORT, from MWP, the foremost publisher of independent filmmaking books.

As a filmmaker, shorts curator, and script archivist her current work seeks to defy category, challenge impossibility, and build safe spaces for women and people of color to be vulnerable and authentic; and to play with the lines of reality and fiction; genre, form and time, and still and moving media. She is the recipient of several fellowships including recent Mellon and ITVS DDF Fellowships. Professor Shaw teaches in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University.

Dr. Jude G. Akudinobi — Speaker

Dr. Jude G. Akudinobi is a Lecturer in the Black Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara. He earned his PhD in Cinema-Television from the University of Southern California. His works on African cinema have appeared in 'Iris', 'The Black Scholar', 'Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art', 'Social Identities', 'Third Text', 'Research in African Literatures', 'Meridians', 'Visual Anthropology Review', amongst other publications and anthologies.
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Dr. Akudinobi, whose research interests span the complexities of post-colonial literatures, cultural politics, media and cinematic representations, merges theory with practice through poetry, fiction, screenplays, and experimentations with the expressive capacities of the cinematic medium. President of the Advisory Board for African Voices Cinema Series, he has consulted for production companies, reviewed for scholarly journals and presses, served on film festival juries, delivered keynote lectures, and been a special guest at various distinguished workshops, seminars, and conferences.
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His expertise has, also, featured in national and international media, like CNN Headline News, The Dr. Phil Show, Nigerian Television Authority, The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian (Nigeria), The Age (Australia) and El Mercurio (Chile).

Kahlil Joseph — Director of BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2025).

KAHLIL JOSEPH, DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER/EDITOR is an acclaimed artist and filmmaker known for his visionary approach to storytelling through film and video installations. His work challenges conventional linear narratives, using sound and music as materials to evoke lyricism and complexity.

Born in Seattle, Joseph began his career working for photographer Melodie McDaniel and director Terrence Malick. His early visual style was influenced by the experimental films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and references to Andrei Tarkovsky and Chris Marker coexist alongside an exploration of the vastness of the Black experience. Joseph first gained widespread recognition with his 2013 short film, “Until the Quiet Comes,” for musician Flying Lotus, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

A hallmark of Joseph’s practice is his ability to create works that bridge art and community. His most ambitious and ongoing project is BLKNWS, a conceptual artwork and business that redefines how Black culture is experienced and communicated. Conceived as a continuous, curated broadcast, BLKNWS merges news clips, social media content, and cultural artifacts into a dynamic stream that reflects the richness of Black life. First showcased at the Venice Biennale in 2019, BLKNWS has since expanded into a networked platform, featuring satellite installations in barbershops, cafés, and community spaces.

Joseph has also served as creative director for The Underground Museum. Founded in 2013 by his late brother Noah Davis, the Los Angeles independent art space and community hub is a pioneering venue for accessible and innovative exhibitions.