Mimesis Without Organs: A Screening and Conversation with Johan Grimonprez

Filmmaker Johan Grimonprez joined us in person and shared some of his recent work, followed by a candid conversation about his cinematic practice. Curated by Mimesis programmer Jean-Jacques Martinod. 

Recently invited to be the Guest of Honor for this year’s IDFA, Grimonprez is well known for his steadfast vision which critically challenges the ways history itself is recorded and fabulated. His 1997 film Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, which examined the role of mediated public perception surrounding airplane hijacking, ominously forecasting 9/11, was selected by The Guardian in From Warhol to Steve McQueen as one of the 30 works to tell the history of video art. His most recent film Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, regarding the potentials of decolonization and global self-determination, told through a parallel history of jazz, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it received the Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation.