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Here: A Visual Poem

 
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Here: a visual poem


Here is an experimental visual poem, inviting people to occupy the Black Body and examine the lived Black experience for a brief moment. Combining film, animation, photography, and archival footage Here explores what blackness means to me. As well as what it might mean to others.

The dense collection of layered voices, occupying different points of view throughout the film, are as infused with as much love and hope as they are filled with a deep sense of concern and anguish. These are the familiar voices of our mothers, our oppressors, and of our allies. They talk to you; they become you; they start speaking out against you, ultimately leaving you with the question which voice you identify with most.

What initially started off as visual research for an animated film, called It's Nice in Here, dealing with police brutality and what it means to grow up black, resulted in a year-long exploration of why I felt the need to make that film in the first place. It forced me to question and confront my own blackness, as well as cope with the hurt that I had buried deep inside of me. Acknowledging and accepting one's own blackness always seems to come with some punches.

During this time, I had the opportunity to travel through Europe, Africa, and the United States where I had many conversations about blackness and what this means to the people living in different parts of the world.

 
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These conversations shaped the way I, myself, looked at blackness while simultaneously also being monumental in shaping Here, which organically grew to become an accumulation of the visual research I had already done, was still in the process of doing, and the research that still lay ahead of me.

By weaving personal and nostalgic images with images we’ve seen a million times, a stirring montage is created that works on both an
introspective as well as a political level. Through the unconstrained interplay between sound and image, this film leaves you wondering what it means to be ‘here’ and if we’re already there.

WDKA Drempelprijs (2018)
Netherlands Film Funds Wildcard (2018)
Sister Cities Animated - Curator’s Award for Innovation (2019)
West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival - “Best of Show” (2019)
DC Black Film Festival - Best Experimental Film (2019)