Shivanee Ramlochan discusses Michelle Mohabeer’s Coconut/Cane & Cutlass, a mythic/poetic rumination on exile, displacement, and nationhood from the perspective of an Indo-Caribbean lesbian who migrated to Canada twenty years ago.

Deborah Chu responds to Mourad Kourbaj’s striking tale of a family escaping the horrors of the Argentine dictatorship and 'La Junta Militar' in Una Muerte y Un Nacimiento//A Death and A Birth.

Nasim Rebecca Asl responds to Violeta & Sofia, a film by Noah Berhitu and Alejandra Rogghé Pérez on the power of food to maintain generational links to culture and place after migration.

Eilidh Akilade

Her hands bloom outwards again and again. Another’s hands clasp mid-air before sinking to the right, sweetly. One hand – of another, still – holds their fingers tightly and then suddenly detaches, spinning out in circles. And the left hand of another comes under the right and it is held, supported, by that which is its sistren, its brethren. It relaxes before springing upwards, fingertips splaying, signally a new thought for Maud Sulter and for us all.

Hayley Wu (胡禧怡)

“It feels like there’s no good place to be these days,” my friend tells me over lunch. We are in a quiet corner of Hong Kong, thinking about the dozens of friends and acquaintances who in the past year have left the city, looking for a new home. From what we hear, no one has found one elsewhere yet.

Katie Goh

We Are Nature is not a pandemic film. There are no references to lockdown or to social distancing or to government-mandated once-a-day walks. Instead, it is a short film that captures People of Colour in nature during golden hour. Director of Photography Linda Wu roams with a camera, following people in trailing skirts and billowing dresses as they walk through fields and sit by trees. In voiceover, different people contemplate their personal relationships to the natural world.

Andrés N. Ordorica responds to Batería, a film by Damián Sainz Edwards that captures the raw beauty of a disused military base just outside of Havana, a refuge for gay men for cruising, connection, and imagining better futures.

Georgina Quach

Still We Thrive, written and directed by Campbell X, ensures we never look away from the past. It brings together contemporary Black actors speaking to camera with archive footage of Black history from the Caribbean, United Kingdom, United States and the African continent. As poet Elizabeth Alexander said, for so long, communities of colour have had to “carry around knowledge and stories in our bodies,” because resources were not devoted to preserving the spaces that held those stories and culture.

Hayley Wu (胡禧怡) responds to Thulani Rachia’s ixwa blue, a film that traces several colonial architectural sites in Cachoeira Brazil, investigating Rachia’s paternal line of ancestry. A Fringe of Colour 2021 commission.

Memuna Konteh responds to schwarz (Black), a documentary by Amuna Wagner that intertwines poetry, photography and film to present a series of intimate and stimulating conversations between 17 young, Black Germans.

Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller responds to Agudas, a film by Amber Akaunu that tries to make sense of a painful family history linking Afro-Brazilians to Nigeria, mixing poetry, animation and the archive.

Anahit Behrooz responds to Mahenderpal Sorya’s experimental film Saeculum, which beautifully explores his father’s life’s work in the construction industry, migration and parenthood.

Elete N-F responds to Muttererde by Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor, which asks “what are rituals, teachings and abilities passed on from our matriarchs?”

Georgina Quach responds to Margot Conde Arenas’ Aunque Me Vaya Lejos (Even If I Go Far), which shares the stories of Venezuelan immigrants, refugees and ‘caminantes’ (walkers) in their own voices.