Taking influence from Daphne Brooks’ essay “All That You Can’t Leave Behind: Black Female Soul Singing and the Politics of Surrogation in the Age of Catastrophe”, the film is an exploration of the archival and performative legacies of Black women singers and performers. It illustrates how Black feminisms can be restorative and a reparative mode strengthened by the history of Black women’s collective refusal, resilience, and creativity.

Ufuoma Essi (b. 1995, London) is a video artist and filmmaker from South East London. She works predominantly with film and moving image as well as photography and sound. Her work revolves around Black feminist epistemology and the configuration of displaced histories. The archive forms an essential medium for her and it’s through explorations with the archive that she aims to interrogate and disrupt the silences and gaps of political and historical narratives.

Previous exhibitions and screenings include South London Gallery; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Black Star Film Festival, Philadelphia; Maysles Documentary Center, New York, Barbican, London; Lisson Gallery, London; and Chisenhale Studios, London.