The Absurdity of The Black Female Experience
Director: Vanessa Magic
WINNER: Audience Award
Cast:Shanice Bowrin, Ella Cooper
Crew:Writer: Vanessa Magic, Producer: Shonna Foster, Associate Producer: Nedda Sarshar, Director of Photography: Rolla Tahir, Editor: Nicole Sison, Production Designer: Dawn Grant, Costume Designer: Kaylah Wilson, Makeup Artist: Temi Shobowale, Composer & Sound Designer: Jeremy Glenn
Email:vanessaismagic@gmail.com
Synopsis
A Black woman journeys through a guided meditation in an effort to connect with herself and decide whether she will go towards the light of hope or remain in the darkness of a constructed reality.
Trailer
About the director
Vanessa Magic is a filmmaker, writer, and director whose work centers around loneliness and grief, often from the eye of the outsider, with an Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist lens. She is an alumni of The Warner Media Discovery Access x Canadian Academy Writers Program '22 and Women In the Director's Chair '23. Vanessa’s short film, Oneironautic, was officially selected at the 2021 Florence Short Film Festival, Cannes Short Film Festival, Victoria Film Festival and the Reelworld Film Festival, where she was nominated for Standout Writer and Director. Her latest short, The Future Above Us, will represent Canada as part of Telefilm's Not Short on Talent initiative at Cannes. Vanessa is currently writing her first feature, a tech-noir thriller about memories and dreams.
Filmmaker's note
The Absurdity of The Black Female Experience aims to shed light on the complex and nuanced experiences of Black women through a surrealist lens, capturing the strange and highlighting it with levity and light. In a world that creates self-doubt and shame surrounding the identity of Black women and presents challenges of living up to the trope of being a “strong“ Black woman, this piece aims to encourage self-care and self-preservation of Black women and create a greater understanding and empathy.