All Films / Pollination / Black Gold
Black Gold
Scotland / 2023 / 7m / English
In-Person: Thur 29 June / 19:00 BST
Online: 23 - 29 June
Moving through layers of thoughts, memories, visions and histories, Ashanti Harris’ filmic poem is a stream of consciousness of movements and sounds.
Inspired by Foluke Taylor’s words in Unruly Therapeutic: Black Feminist Writings and Practices in Living Room (“stop interrupting the ancestors; and let them finish their sentences; and try not to whine; and replace instructions with permissions”), multidisciplinary artist Ashanti Harris embarked on her own journey of listening. The artist, whose practice spans dance, performance, facilitation, film, installation and writing, has been researching oil since 2019. In this year, the city of Aberdeen was twinned with Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana, after the discovery of oil-producing sandstone on the Guyanese coast in 2015. This relationship founded on extraction is not new to Guyana, it is embedded in the land and its history. From the violence of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, to the industrial mining of minerals extracted from its soils and to oil production offshore, Guyana has a long and complex relationship with violent forms of extraction.
Starting from a place of pressure, intensity, and permission from the ancestors, this film poem is a stream of consciousness in words, images, movements and sounds. Recorded between Scotland, Guyana and Tanzania, Black Gold (2023) is a poetic procession to the bottom of the ocean and into the centre of the earth.
-
Written and performed by Ashanti Harris
Cinematography - Gneiss Colours
Editing - Tao-Anas Le Thanh
Sound Score - Ashanti Harris
Producer - Fringe of Colour
Assistant Producer - Natasha Ruwona
With special thanks to collaborators Titana Muthui, Jessica Paris, Hamshya Rajkumar, and Jen Martin
-
Captions by Sarya Wu
British Sign Language by Rachel Jones
BSL Editing by Tao-Anas Le Thanh
Audio Descriptions provided by the International Digital Centre
Learn more about Fringe of Colour’s practice of commissioning new work
Read Response
On oil, Drexciya and building pressure
A Response to Black Gold, written by Eilidh Akilade
Listen to…
Artist Ashanti Harris talk about Black Gold in our Audio Programme, Before the Applause - available wherever you get your podcasts.
This screening was accompanied by a live Q&A in-person with Ashanti Harris, the maker of Black Gold. Pass Holders can enjoy the recording and transcript of this event below.