Join us for a screening of short films followed by a post-screening discussion with Akosua Adoma Owusu, in person.
Akosua Adoma Owusu is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and educator. Her cinematic essays and experimental films explore the complex intersections of identity, often portraying the experience of African immigrants, especially women, in the United States. Owusu’s work has screened extensively at festivals and venues worldwide, including the New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival, among others. She is currently an assistant professor in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, Department of Media, Journalism, and Film at Howard University.
Program:
Drexciya (2011, 12 minutes)
A portrait of an abandoned public swimming facility located in Accra, Ghana, set on the Riviera. The film is inspired by Afro-futurist myths propagated by the underground Detroit-based band Drexciya.
Kwaku Ananse (2013, 26 minutes)
Kwaku Ananse is an intensely personal project which draws upon the rich mythology of Ghana. The short film combines semi-autobiographical elements with the tale of Kwaku Ananse, a trickster in West African stories who appears as both spider and man.
Reluctantly Queer (2016, 8 minutes)
This short film invites us into the unsettling life of a young Ghanaian man struggling to reconcile his love for his mother with his sexuality amid the increased tensions incited by same-sex politics in Ghana.
On Monday of Last Week (2018, 14 minutes)
A story by acclaimed Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie provides the basis for this exploration of race, liberalism, and sexuality centered on an encounter between a Nigerian woman and the African American artist who employs her as a nanny.
Pelourinho: They Don't Really Care About Us (2019, 9 minutes)
Inspired by a 1927 letter from American sociologist and Pan-Africanist W.E.B. Du Bois to the US Embassy in Brazil, this colorful film takes us back to a time when it was impossible for African Americans to travel to Brazil and reminds us of the inequality still faced by the Black people in Brazil.
Concluding with a special screening of Owusu’s work in progress Damn the Man, Save the Rex!, an ongoing effort to revive one of Ghana's oldest cinema houses as an alternative creative space for art, music, and film, begun by the filmmaker in 2013.
Part of the Celebrate Black Art & History on Screen series.