RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE
Michigan-based filmmakers and content creators summon the arts, Black bodies and African-based spirituality in addressing the dual pandemics of systemic racism and COVID-19. This program is presented in collaboration with the Detroit Narrative Agency (DNA) initiative Radical Remedies: Collective Healing and Power Through Story.
PROGRAM
Justice in Motion (4:07), directed by Krisilyn Tony Frazier
In the fight for justice, dancers, visual artists and MC’s join together to create an artistic response to systematic oppression and police brutality.
Followed by shorts from the DNA Radical Remedies Anthology:
The Call (4:14), created by Costa Kazaleh Sirdenis, Salakastar, Chris Jakob
The Call explores the use of ritual, movement, poetry and vibration to connect our past and our ancestral lines in order to heal and evolve in the present moment.
Presence and Permission for Sadness (5:00), written and directed by Violeta Donawa
In an early morning reflection, Violeta Dowawa shares her poem “Presence,” an outgrowth of communing with Spirit.
Return to Breath (3:25), directed by Aleesa Searcy
In this time of COVID and uprisings and being fed up with police brutality and racism and anti-Blackness, I return to my breath as rest and resistance. My wellness matters. Our wellness matters.
Solidarity: First Your Liberation And Then Mine (1:00), created by Inside Southwest Detroit
In the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, this film is a document of people and community coming together through protest, performance, relationship, marching, education, and photographic art to the beat of intersectional solidarity building at the Solidarity Action + Freedom March, “A people’s movement rooted in Black + Indigenous leadership” on Woodward on July 4th, 2020.
Burning (3:50), written and directed by z.c. Cunningham
A poetic manifesto on the current state of affairs regarding African Americans in the United States of America. The film is narrated from the POV of a millennial Black man who’s trying to make sense of it all while uplifting his people.
Omiero, (3:14) directed by Ifayomi
Omiero explores the connectivity that exists between water’s bond with descendants of enslaved people, and the way that water has been used as a conduit of healing and messaging in the womb, in ritual, baptism, spiritual bathing and across Diasporic identities and practices. In this film, water is seen as a living entity that can be summoned for healing.