Amara Barner

Based on the poetry cycle of the esteemed African-American poet Cornelius Eady, the film is inspired by the work of Phillis Wheatley, the first published black poet in the US. “Mercy” aims to weave Wheatley's poetry and imagery, which focuses on the complication of the slave learning their captor's language, with gesture, movement and voice into an intricate meditation on black womanhood.