FILM / Zora's Super Short Show / Black History Short Films / Zora Satchell
Hey Y’all! After a two month break (which included the holidays and moving to New York!) I am back this month with another column! For Black History Month I thought I’d give y’all a short list of some of my favorite black film shorts!
We Are-Sisters (2017) directed by B.B Araya and written by Alyssa Dillard, Ronnita L Miller, and B.B Arya. This short is a part of an anthropological series centered on the lives of women of color in Austin Texas. Distributed by Issa Rae Presents #ShortFilmSundays, the film’s central conflict centers on Ronnie and Alyssa’s contrasting approaches to dealing with their shared trauma. Ronnie, the eldest, was forced to step up as the father figure to Alyssa, and now that they’re adults she marinates in resentment and feelings of abandonment. Meanwhile, Alyssa, who has also struggled, has turned towards spirituality for healing, and pushes her sister to find a healthy coping mechanism that will help her move on.
Pumzi (2009) written and directed by Kenyan Director Wanuir Kahiu. Pumzi is a twenty minute short that depicts an afro sci-fi future where everyone lives in secluded digital colonies. The outside world is deemed uninhabitable to human life, necessitating seclusion, until one day a scientist for the virtual Natural History Museum is sent an anonymous soil sample that enables plants to grow.
Hyphen-Nation (2016) directed by Samah Al and distributed by Sisterhood Media. Hyphen- Nation is a documentary short that clocks in just under fourteen minutes. The docu-short explores what it means to be a Black woman for five Black Candadian women of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Wake (2012) A Southern Gothic horror short by Bree Newsome centers on a woman raised in a sexually repressed environment who then murders her abusive father. After his death she seeks out rootwork to summon a demon who will help her create the perfect man, however things quickly begin to go wrong.
Haaniyah Angus’s Short FIlm Duology (2020) Okay, so this last one is technically cheating, but over the last year Haaniyah has made two incredibly impactful shorts, Letter to Adolescence and the Tale of Eurydice. While I highly recommend both shorts, Letter to Adolescence has a soft spot in my heart. It is an empathetic note wishing for a brighter future that I often return to whenever I feel lost in my own anger. Haaniyah says “I find myself looking back at the past in both anguish and anger. I deeply wish I was allowed to grow up unburdened by my surroundings the way my peers did. I’m angry because I deserve better and so do you.” I look to those words when I find myself not just angry about the past but also angry about the future; with this global pandemic I worry about those younger than me. If I feel like so much of my future is stolen, how must they feel? Hearing Haaniyah speak to her own anger regrounds me in the now and I hope it does the same for you.
