Isaac Julien presents 11 films at Tate Britain with a combined running time so voluminous you might want to make a day of it, with respite for lunch. They include a group of early works from the 1980s, screened on monitors and walls outside the exhibition, and seven multiscreen films in darkened theatres within. Copious seating, sumptuous carpets, ideal viewing ratios, barcodes that let you watch again later back home: everything has been arranged for your comfort.
Which is worth bearing in mind as you witness the works of this inveterate seducer. Born in 1960, and starting out with experimental documentaries about police brutality, black life and culture in London, Julien found fame early on with Looking for Langston (1989). What he calls a “meditation” on the ambiguously queer identity of the black US poet Langston Hughes set out the elements of his style: fact interspersed with fiction, documentary with drama, drifting dreamscapes with archive footage, montages of dance, song and monologue, the camera hovering on beautiful people and places.
