FILM SCREENING

From Ground To Sky – Films by Kevin Jerome Everson

We are excited to welcome acclaimed artist and filmmaker KEVIN JEROME EVERSON to the Center for Ethnographic Media Arts! Join us for a night of short films by Kevin Jerome Everson followed by a conversation with Kevin Jerome Everson and Jheanelle Brown to follow the films.

Doors at 6:30 PM, film begins at 7:00 PM.
Runtime 58 min.

FREE ADMISSION AND OPEN TO ALL. RSVP to [email protected]

FILM PROGRAM:

Gises

Gises is what the Potawatomi of the Great Lakes called the sun. Music by David Dominique. It will be the West Coast premiere of the just completed Gises (2026), commissioned by Media City Film Festival, in partnership with Trinosophes Projects with support from the Knight Arts Foundation.
(Kevin Jerome Everson, US, 2026, 7:05, 16mm and S8 & HD transferred to digital, color)

Practice, Practice, Practice

‘Practice, Practice, Practice’ is what Richard Bradley did before he took down the Confederate flag flying over City Hall in San Francisco, California in the 1980s. Commissioned by The Brick/MOCA Los Angeles.
(Kevin Jerome Everson, US, 2024, 10 min.16mm transferred to digital, b/w) World Premiere, Locarno Film Festival 2024, Pardo di Domani – Concorso Corti d’autore, North American Premiere: New York Film Festival, ‘Currents”, Oct. 2024; World Film Festival, Bangkok Dec. 2024; EMAF, April 2025. Featured in the MONUMENTS exhibition, curated by Hamza Walker and Kara Walker, October 2025 – May 2026

Recovery

Recovery is about an Airman training to be a pilot at the Columbus Air Force Base , 14th Flying Training Wing , in Columbus, Mississippi.
(Kevin Jerome Everson, US, 2020, 10:19, 16mm transferred to digital, b&w) World Premiere, Berlinale Forum Expanded, 2020

E-Four Specialist

E-Four Specialist Pleas Everson Jr. rides in a US army tank during the 1991 war in Iraq.
(Kevin Jerome Everson, US, 2025, 3:36, b&w) Doc Fortnight, MoMA March 2025

Hazel (dual)

Hazel (dual) is a split screen 16mm film about the recording of the underrated guitarist Eddie Hazel’s (1950-1993) ten-minute guitar solo on “Maggot Brain”, the title track to Funkadelic’s 1971 album Maggot Brain. Starring Ricky Goldman. “In the making of Maggot Brain, to get the best out of the 21 year old guitarist Eddie Hazel, I always thought that George Clinton told Eddie Hazel that his mother had died. I have always believed that Clinton lied to Hazel to get him to rock-out. The true story (or close to it) was that Clinton told Hazel to “play as if your mom died” or “play as if you been told your mamma died” or “picture your mamma dead”. Either way, an LSD induced Clinton did not mislead Hazel. Hazel is the fictious moment when Clinton misleads the guitarist Eddie Hazel to record Maggot Brain. In doing so, his virtuosos performance brings his mother back from the dead.”– KJE
(Kevin Jerome Everson, US, 2023, 12:19, 16mm transferred to digital, b/w)

IFO

IFO is about three famous UFO sightings over Mansfield, Ohio.
(Kevin Jerome Everson, US, 2017, 16mm transferred to digital, 9:50, b/w)

West Lounge

West Lounge is about an unfortunate event in Columbus Mississippi told by an unreliable narrator.
(Kevin Jerome Everson, US, 2023, 5:16, color) World Premiere, Courtisane March 2023. Intl Competition, International Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg June 2023; MCFF Thousand Suns (virtual fest online) 2024

This event is co-sponsored by USC Center for Ethnographic Media Arts and USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Still from IFO, 2017 ©️Kevin Jerome Everson; courtesy the artist; trilobite-arts DAC; Picture Palace Pictures