Even When Life is Sad, People Still Have a Good Time

The story of legendary blues performer, Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s.

After cheating on her mean boyfriend, Lewis, Brownie is hospitalized by a series of severe accidents. Instead of visiting her in the hospital, Lewis (assistant to the Dean of the local university) helps investigate two professors suspected of sleeping with students.

The distant future: a Nigerian space station in a remote corner of the galaxy orbits an artificial pinpoint of matter so dense it cannot exist in our solar system. A first-time collaboration between experimental filmmaker Adebukola Bodunrin and graphic novelist Ezra Claytan Daniels, The Golden Chain finds the two artists intertwining their contrasting aesthetics to revisit the themes of the Yoruba creation tale.

Leaks in the Lines is a hybrid film combining laser etching, phytograms, and 8mm footage of gardens to explore the tension between organic growth and imposed order. Reimagining the logic of Jacques Boyceau de la Baraudière’s authoritative 1638 garden design manual, Traité du jardinage, a new shifting visual system is created.

"Gather + Listen" is an animation that focuses on the subtle movements and rhythms that unconsciously happen at an owambe, a Nigerian street party. As people come together in joy, their hearts begin to beat to the same rhythm, as if united in happiness.

Animation by Adebukola Bodunrin. Music by Nicole Mitchell.

Wumni, a reclusive young Nigerian immigrant, becomes convinced that a mysterious object approaching Earth's orbit holds the key to her loneliness. Determined to decode the alien signal, she enlists the help of Jenny, a stranger and owner of a music shop. Adapted from the short comic by award-winning graphic novelist and screenwriter, Ezra Claytan Daniels, We Are Not Alone is a lo-fi sci-fi tale that delves into themes of connection, expectation, and false promises.

The Surrealist, "Exquisite Corpse" was a French Café parlor game. "Exquisite Moving Corpse" is more of an artist chain letter. 60 artists participated over a two-year period, beginning in March 2020. Each invited artist made a one minute video in response to the last frame of the previous minute.