Krisilyn Tony Frazier directed the film Justice in Motion
Photo provided by Juanita Anderson
It took over four minutes.
In those four minutes and 14 seconds short film The Call, directed by Chris Jakob, Aja Salakastar Dier, and Costa K. Sirdenis delves into the use of ritual, movement, poetry, and vibration to link the Black community’s past and its ancestral lines to heal and evolve in today.
The film was showcased in a “Resistance and Resilience” film series [debuted recently] through the Carr Center that will be available again at the end of January.
“We created this piece as a response to Detroit Narrative Agency’s call for films that addressed living with the dual pandemic of COVID-19 and systemic racism,” Dier told the Michigan Chronicle. “We are primarily theatre-makers and obviously our live performances have been canceled so we were thrilled that we were able to create and perform while taking the proper health and safety measures.”
Dier said that the piece is about how one “deals with trauma, anxiety, fear, illness, depression, confusion and uncertainty.”
“Another main theme is the juxtaposition between the desire to stay connected and the need to unplug,” Dier added. “The weight of living in a Black body in the US, this year especially, at times felt nearly unbearable.”
The Carr Center’s involvement with Michigan-based filmmakers bringing awareness to injustice for the Black community is in line with their vision to use the essence of the Black cultural experience to inspire, entertain, challenge, and educate, according to a press release. The Carr Center is where artists, across all disciplines, and community come together.
Their film lineup includes works that address the pandemic, racism, and more.
Other films include:
- Justice in Motion, 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.
- Presence and Permission for Sadness, 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, 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, created by Inside Southwest Detroit In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, 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 on July 4th, 2020.
- Burning, 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, 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.
Carr Center Resident Media Artist Juanita Anderson said that part of her role is to bring the films throughout the African world to the Carr Center to be presented to a broader public. And given the more virtual landscape, these days [where people can have access to more creative works] now was the time to bring these films together at the Carr Center.
“One of the reasons for the Resistance and Resilience program is we really wanted to take a look at the role that Detroit-based artists were playing,” Anderson said, adding that Black people experienced “dual pandemics.”
Dier agrees.
“We experienced emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical exhaustion,” Dier said of the film project. “In the film, we find the ritual of connecting with nature in order to bring us back to our center and our stillness. We also discover the need to connect with the wisdom of our ancestors. This film came from the truth of our hearts and we are thrilled that more people will be able to enjoy the piece in January. This film series is so beautifully curated and we love how our piece flows with the other films in the series.”
For more information visit the Carr Center https://thecarrcenter.org/.