Photograph from the Small Boats series, 2007. All images courtesy of the artist, Metro Pictures, New York, and Victoria Miro, London.

Isaac Julien and I first got in touch by email in the spring, when he was preparing to go on location in Sicily with his film crew. By the time we did the interview, in the summer, he had returned to London to edit the footage. We spoke at the end of a long working day for Julien—at 11 pm his time, 6 pm in New York, where I was—and during our long phone conversation he relaxed into our “meeting.”

I was aware that we passed midnight in London as I sat in the glowing sunny light of the evening in New York.

The film Julien was shooting in Sicily is Small Boats, a reflection on migration and the hope for a better life. It is the third film in a trilogy­ about journeying across continents and cultures that includes True North, a tale set against a spectacular background of ice and snow, based on the story of the explorer Matthew Henson, believed to be the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909; and Fantôme Afrique, which weaves cinematic and architectural elements through the rich urban environment of Ouagadougou and the arid spaces of rural Burkina Faso. All three films are included in a multimedia staged work titled Cast No Shadow, in which performers and dancers (choreographed by Russell Maliphant) will interact with the projections.

Cast No Shadow was first conceived by Isaac Julien over three years ago, when PERFORMA Director RoseLee Goldberg suggested to him that he create a live performance out of his films. In 2005, Sadler’s Wells joined PERFORMA as a Co-Commissioner and Producer of Cast No Shadow, and these partners invited Russell Maliphant to collaborate with Julien on the project.

The world premiere of Cast No Shadow takes place this month at Sadler’s Wells in London, and it will travel to the US as part of PERFORMA 07 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on November 6. Small Boats will also be on view in installation form at Metro Pictures Gallery in New York this fall.

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Issue 101 Fall 2007