Ephraim Asili on Filmmaking, Corporate Work, and the Avant-Garde

Filmmaker Ephraim Asili, a 2023–24 Harvard Radcliffe Fellow and former Guggenheim Fellow, discusses his artistic approach and current projects in an interview. Asili, an associate professor at Bard College, creates works like Diaspora Suite (2011–17) and The Inheritance (2020) that blend documentary with examinations of intimacy and history. He recently directed a cinematic prelude for Louis Vuitton's SS23 Men's fashion show in Paris. Asili critiques Hollywood's three-act structure as a "cage" that prioritizes profit over artistic innovation, arguing it fails to represent reality. He is developing documentaries on experimental jazz musicians and activists Don and Moki Cherry, and on Alice Coltrane, projects he says "chose" him through personal connections. Asili emphasizes that his target audience is himself, aiming to make work compelling to him first. He reflects on the avant-garde, noting Black existence in the West is inherently avant-garde due to its experimental nature. For aspiring filmmakers from working-class backgrounds, Asili advises starting small with short films and emphasizes the necessity of loving cinema despite financial constraints. Influential films for him include Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), Chris Marker's Sans Soleil (1983), and Bill Greaves's Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968).