SAN ANTONIO — For over 130 years, audiences have gotten used to watching their movies through one screen. A new exhibit opening at Ruby City this week throws a wrench in that convention, turning passive viewers into active ones while working to correct a historical record.
“True North” – a 2006 short film from British filmmaker and multiscreen installation artist Isaac Julien – will show for free at the Southtown gallery starting Thursday, allowing visitors to partake in an experience that is at once disorienting, immersive and challenging. It depicts the journey of Matthew Henson, a Black explorer thought to be the first to reach the North Pole.
The claim, however, has been disputed for decades, and “True North” seeks to reassert Henson’s role in history through impressionistic filmmaking while also commenting on social issues that linger today.
“That’s the kind of extraordinary thing about Isaac's work, is that he can... relay some of the most tragic incidents in our contemporary history, but do it in such a manner that is really quite seductive,” said Ruby City Director Elyse Gonzales. “That’s also what makes his work so successful is that it lures you in, and then allows you to have these experiences in terms of contemplation and reflection.”
The 15-minute “True North,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 16 years ago, is projected in 4:3 aspect ratio on a trio of ceiling-high screens—and the audience rarely sees the same thing across all of them. Some sets of images are thematically linked, others reminiscent of a static montage emphasizing the cruelty of the Arctic cold. Some observe the same thing from different angles, other still manifest internal visualizations of external journeys.
And then there are sequences that toy with perspective, like one in which Henson, appearing in close-up on one screen, is made to look as though he’s observing himself trudging across the icy wasteland on another.
Julien’s formal creativity begins with the casting of Henson himself; the explorer is actually played by an actress, Vanessa Myrie, which opens up other avenues for meaning for a film that sometimes appears to be reaching through history, and perhaps culture as well.
“There's even one scene where you see her bundled up against the backdrop of the snow in the mountains,” Gonzales said, “and it reminds me of the last scene from Mary Shelley's ‘Frankenstein,’ where he's kind of exiled himself to the Arctic.”
The film is stark, captivating and practically without dialogue, save for occasional voiceover that lends “True North” an almost spiritual quality. That’s a through line that connects Julien’s “Expeditions” trilogy, the others being “Western Unions Small Boats” and “Fantôme Afrique.”
Gonzales likens the approach to the eerily majestic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, whose emphasis on landscapes and the simultaneous awe and terror of the natural world Julien draws from for “True North.”
“There are ideas and themes running throughout the works, but they allow for individuals to enter into the work and wrestle with those ideas, come to their own understanding and interpretation.”
The filmmaker’s work has traveled the world, having been welcomed at museums in Africa, Canada, Paris, Brazil, Chicago, the Netherlands and Dublin… as a start. He has also taught in Germany, London and Yale, while also receiving awards at the Cannes Film Festival and from the queen of England.
Yet Ruby City, Gonzales says, remains home to the largest collection of Julien’s work. The gallery has about 50 of his pieces, adding it “continues to grow.”
It goes back to his local footprint. The Alamo City was a major stop on the filmmaker’s artistic journey, having been a resident at Artpace in the ‘90s. That’s when he came to befriend Linda Pace, the collector and philanthropist whose work continues to be displayed around the city following her death in 2007.
“Certainly for us, we carry on Linda's tradition and really think about art as a catalyst for change,” Gonzales said. “Change really starts with thinking and challenging people to think.”
The exhibit will launch with two Thursday events – at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. – for gallery members to participate in an introductory discussion about “True North.” It will remain on display until the start of 2023, but will be briefly closed from July 25 to Sept. 7 as Ruby City prepares to rotate out the displays in its permanent collection galleries for the first time since 2019.
“He's always talking about these issues of our time, and sadly they remain so relevant. We still are seeing incidences of people that have been left out of historical record that had to be revived and reinserted,” Gonzales said. “He's so thoughtful at recognizing what's happening in our world and attempting to make it accessible for individuals, no matter what they may know or not know about the situation.”
