Members Activity

Fábio Calundungo

,

Jaz Morrison

EARTHSTRONG

Dates
Film Festival and Q&A: Thursday 28 April, 17.00pm
Roundtable: Friday 29 April, 19.30pm

Location: DMU Events (online)

 

A still from short film 'EARTHSTRONG' (2022): a Black woman in a black jacket stands in front of two majestic double doors with a torch. Her back is to the camera, and we can see a long braid down her back. In the centre of the image is the following in translucent white text: 'EARTHSRTRONG'

 

The ‘Creating Joy Film Festival & Roundtable‘ is designed to prove a needed space for Black Diasporic filmmakers and artists to unsettle dominant representations of Blackness in visual culture. Each film centres the intimate ways in which Black life is enriched and animated by the ordinary pleasures of being in community.

The festival will introduce newly commissioned filmed by six visual artists. They will each showcase their work in this hotly anticipated event. These artists come from different parts of the Black African Diaspora, including the UK, Jamaica, Nigeria, and Canada. Explore the role of joy and community in their different representations of Blackness. The film screening will be followed by a live Q&A session featuring the artists.

Visual Artists and EOP Members Jaz Morrison (director and writer) and Fábio Calundungo (cinematographer) will be showcasing their short experimental art film ‘EARTHSTRONG’, a homage to the restorative power of community, told through the aesthetic of a black-and-white, silent film. ‘It is through community that we are able to find understanding, acceptance, care, catharsis, rest, and of course joy.’

Accompanied by an arrangement of Multi-Instrumentalist & 2021 Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Composition Prize award winner Millicent James’ ‘Torn’ (2020, Moyo, Vol. 1).

 

Jaz Morrison is a writer and multidisciplinary (but mainly visual) artist, exploring history and social space. Jaz loves sustainable creative expression, Afrofuturism, worldbuilding, and storytelling. For her, it’s all about sense- and memory-making.

Fábio ‘Calungz’ Calundungo is a Birmingham-based filmmaker. A ‘Film and Animation’ alum and BRMTWN member, Calungz is interested in working with various media forms to tell stories and make films. With filmmaking and photography as his primary practices, Fábio builds visual languages, primarily dabbling in short video installations.