Territories is an experimental documentary about the Notting Hill Carnival in West London, organised by the African-Caribbean community and held in August every year since 1964. Produced in 1984, the film combines shots taken with a shoulder camera with archive footage, in a montage interspersed with inlays and superimposed images. The political viewpoint is declared from the very first shot – while a tracking shot shows worn building façades and unemployed youths filing past, the voice-over recounts the history of this popular festival, recalling its origins in ancient Babylon or the Caribbean, but finally pointing out that its real importance lies in the possibility for its participants to reappropriate it, thus becoming – other than a festival – a place for class and gender-related protest action to be made.

Via these superimposed images and inlays, Isaac Julien combines images of the groups that participate in the carnival (in both an ambiguous and poetic way). The orange-dyed head of an impassive young African is superimposed on images of the crowd and the arrest of young people, while festival-goers parade by in fancy dress.

The soundtrack includes testimonies by participants who recount their memories of the festival, as well as of attempts by police to ban the carnival. The commentary and music also convey various forms of community – those that are created by territory, gender, class, or sexuality. The scanning of the text prefigures slam and is reminiscent of rap music.

From the beginning of the film, the soundtrack (or more precisely the voice-over) establishes this notion of territory, both symbolic and real. The text is intentionally split between a woman and a man’s voice, immediately conveying a natural and cultural division that underlines the wordplay evident in parts of the film – history becomes /U> and Julien counterpoints this with her story. The artist therefore plays with the idea that “history” is necessarily a male chauvinist notion because it is intrinsically linked to man. This play on words leads to the conclusion that history as seen by women is not that same as that seen by men.