Interview with AILEY director, Jamila Wignot

Jamila Wignot is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her body of work includes, The African Americans, Many Rivers To Cross, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, which won a Peabody, Emmy, and NAACP award, and of course AILEY. 

Alvin Ailey was a visionary artist who found salvation through dance. AILEY is an immersive profile of ground-breaking and influential choreographer Alvin Ailey, founder of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Sensorial and archival-rich, AILEY captures the brilliant and enigmatic man who, when confronted by a world that refused to embrace him, was determined to build one that would.

As part of our regional outreach for the film, we arranged for Jamila to speak with ‘Making Waves Film Festival’ - Portsmouth's annual film festival and short film competition celebrating innovative and bold filmmaking. 

Who was Alvin Ailey and why should film enthusiasts care about his story?
Alvin Ailey was one of the most important artists of the 20th century - arguably, the most important black choreographer in the history of modern dance. The works he created; celebrations of African American beauty and history shattered boundaries and stereotypes, and redefined modern dance as an enduring and innovative American art form that continues to break convention.

Politically and choreographically, what strides did Ailey take for the black community?

In 1958, at the age of 27, Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). His earliest works were inspired by what he called “blood memories” of his childhood in Texas. At a time when Black people were fighting for civil, social, political, and economic equality,  he created dance works that centred Black life, history, and community, dances that showcased the universality of the Black experience, and above all else, possibility. He did more than move bodies; he opened minds. His dances became revolutionary social statements that staked a claim: black life was central to the American story and deserved a central place in American art and on the world stage.

How long have you been a director?

I’ve been directing documentary films for over ten years.

What inspired you to encapsulate Ailey’s story in your documentary?

I had long been a fan of the company, so  in the beginning what I was excited about was working with dance and finding ways to tell a story through movement. I was also excited to explore Ailey’s artistic process - to learn something of the man behind these masterpieces. As I grew to know Mr. Ailey’s story, I fell in love. His vulnerability, sensitivity, and struggles made him so relatable. To be able to introduce audiences to him in his complexity was something that really inspired me.

What inspired you to encapsulate Ailey’s story in your documentary?

I had long been a fan of the company, so  in the beginning what I was excited about was working with dance and finding ways to tell a story through movement. I was also excited to explore Ailey’s artistic process - to learn something of the man behind these masterpieces. As I grew to know Mr. Ailey’s story, I fell in love. His vulnerability, sensitivity, and struggles made him so relatable. To be able to introduce audiences to him in his complexity was something that really inspired me.

Why are you excited to share this story?

For those who are familiar with AAADT and with Mr. Ailey, I’m excited to give them a more intimate portrait of the man and to contextualize his choreography within his biography - to really have a sense of his journey of becoming an artist, company founder, and man. I’m also excited that the film incorporates a look at the company today. Mr. Ailey’s story does not end with his death in 1989 because his vision lives on, powerfully today. Watching choreographer Rennie Harris and the company dancers rehearse Lazarus is a way of experiencing Mr. Ailey’s enduring legacy.

What was unique and revolutionary about Ailey’s choreography?

Mr. Ailey was unique as a modern dance choreographer for his wide embrace of a diverse range of techniques and movement languages. He created a style -- accessible, theatrical dance works that fused 20th-century social dances, Horton dance technique, jazz dance, and, unusually for a modern dance choreographer, ballet.

In light of the 60th anniversary of Ailey’s dance company, how does his legacy influence modern dance?

Unlike other modern dance choreographers whose companies only danced the works of their founders, Ailey conceived of his AAADT as a repertory company, which was a modern dance first. He was dedicated to the preservation of older works as well as creating a space for younger choreographers to develop their own voices. Sixty years later, the company continues to carry this mission ensuring the vibrancy of modern dance past, present, and future.

Like many, I found Revelations particularly moving and iconic. Which Ailey choreography stands out to you and why?

I adore Cry. It is a dance that asks audiences to bear witness to the journey of this solitary woman. We get a sense of her interiority, her sorrow, grace, beauty, and her capacity to endure. In the end she has not, in my interpretation of the dance work, transcended her circumstances, but rather achieved spiritual and psychological liberation. There is some part of her that can never be broken.

What message were you trying to share with the viewer and what impact do you hope the documentary will have?

Self-love and self-acceptance are two themes that resonate powerfully in Ailey’s work. Paraphrasing Mary Barnett, one of the participants in our film states “It’s this notion of being able to stand in your own being and through your body and through your movement, connect with who you are and telegraph that to the audience.” I think that the theme was a constant for Mr. Ailey because he intimately understood the challenge to achieve self-acceptance, a challenge made all the more difficult for him as a gay, Black man coming into his own in 1950s America. Though times have changed, people of the global majority, LGBTQIA+ people, poor people, or really anyone who feels alienated from their world, all still struggle in a world that does not recognize or embrace them. The fiercest, most crucial form of resistance is to love oneself and to build a community of people around you who will also love you. It’s a constant process, as it was for Mr. Ailey, but I hope that message will resonate with audiences who see the film.

Towards the end, you nod to Ailey’s place in the LGBT+ community and his untimely death. Why did you choose to address this aspect of his life in the way you did?

We address Mr. Ailey’s sexuality throughout the film. Like other choreographers of his generation, he was out to those in the dance community and to his family, but he never publicly disclosed his sexuality. I think we tend to conflate sexuality and AIDS, a legacy of the war waged against the LBGTQIA+ community and I think for Ailey they were distinct. The privacy he desired around his sexuality was, I believe, connected to his struggle to forge intimate relationships, romantic and otherwise, alongside the pressures of his iconic stature. Showing that absence felt like the most honest thing we could do in a portrait. His decision not to disclose his HIV/Aids status, while connected to his private nature, was ultimately also connected to the politics of the time, which we wanted to point to by returning to the Kennedy Center Honors and revealing Ronald Reagan within that scene. We wanted the scene to embody all of the complexity of what Ailey was confronting in that moment: his mortality, the burden to preserve his company, and the shame and condemnation he might have faced had he chosen to disclose. Audiences are ultimately free to come to their own conclusion about Ailey’s choice, but we wanted to contextualise it properly within his personal life as well as the times he was living in.

AILEY IS AVAILABLE TO WATCH INSTANTLY ON DOGWOOF ON DEMAND NOW: https://watch.dogwoof.com/film/ailey/