This program is in conjunction with the exhibition The Spirit Has Eyes Toward Longing, currently on show at Artspeak, Vancouver. The Spirit Has Eyes Toward Longing creatively envisions metaphysical philosophies through contemporary art. As part of her residency at Artspeak, guest curator Fegor Obuwoma examines the ways in which Afro-diasporic futurisms and Afro-cosmologies form a framework to speculate a spiritual aesthetic, embodying narratives of otherworldly realms, longing, collective/familial memory, ritual, and spirit presence. The films in this program address radical futurity and corporeality in an effort to think through the realities of the Black diaspora in the unfathomable aftermath of disaster.
The four films in this short program come from across the Afro-diaspora, inquiring into alternate realities and filmic history. Complicating time, the films in this program embrace an in-between that is potent with meaning. Please join us for this program if you enjoy Afro-futurism, surrealism and narratives that carry you across time and space.
- The Deliverance of Comfort dir. Zina Saro-Wiwa (2010) 7min
- Black Lady Goddess dir. Chelsea Odufu (2019) 25min
- Ele of the dark dir. Yace Sula (2021) 13min
- Brave dir. Wilmarc Val (2021) 25min
Curated by Fegor Obuwoma:
Ogheneofegor Obuwoma (she/they) is a Nigerian artist, writer, and arts worker based in Vancouver on the unceded Coast Salish lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬNations. Obuwoma’s lens-based practice is grounded in traditions of care and reimagination. Utilizing concepts of Afro-diasporic futurism, their work emerges from an investigation of questions of the body and the spiritual as they relate to a nuanced state of contemporary Nigerian society and culture. Obuwoma has shown work at galleries and film festivals, and their writing has been published on Akimbo. She graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BFA in Film and Communications and is currently pursuing an independent curatorial practice.
Community Partner
Various
Various
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Also Playing
Sex
Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.
3 Faces
Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...
Dreams
The third installment in the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy is another rich, absorbing tale. 17-year-old Johanne writes a confessional about her flirtation with a (female) teacher. But the writing is too good to stay private...
Transit
Trust the director of Phoenix and Barbara to re-imagine a WWII romantic intrigue into something unsettlingly contemporary. With occupying forces closing in, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski) assumes a dead writer's identity and flees to Marseille.