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Barbara McCullough

Barbara McCullough

A native of New Orleans, Barbara McCullough spent most of her life in the Los Angeles area.  Experimental film and video were her first love as she strove to “tap the spirit and richness of her community by exposing its magic, touching its textures and trampling old stereotypes while revealing the untold stories reflective of African American life.”

Her film and video projects include: Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification, Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflection on Ritual Space, Fragments, and The World Saxophone Quartet. Currently, she is completing a film project, Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot, a documentary on the musical genius, community activist and mentor to a generation of accomplished jazz musicians.

A twenty-year-plus veteran of the visual effects industry, McCullough is currently Chair of the Visual Effects Department at Savannah College of Art and Design – SCAD.

Birthplace: 
New Orleans, LA
Education: 
UCLA, B.A. 1976, M.F.A. 1984

Filmography

Film Role(s) Year
Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (1979) Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification

In collaboration with performer Yolanda Vidato, Barbara McCullough presents a Black woman’s attempt to expel the putrefaction she has absorbed from her blighted urban environment, while symbolically cleansing the environment itself.

Director
Producer
Writer
Editor
1979
Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space (1981) Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space

Barbara McCullough converses with members of L.A.’s vibrant black arts communities to explore the role of ritual in black life and art. Interviews are combined with still photographs, colorful video effects, music by Don Cherry and footage from McCullough’s landmark work, Water Ritual #1:  An Urban Rite of Purification.

Director
Producer
Writer
Cinematographer
Editor
1981