Muttererde calls for femme forms of ancestral history in the face of the often interrupted historical knowledge of the African diaspora in Europe and elsewhere. What are rituals, teachings and abilities passed on from our matriarchs? How do these inherited skills serve us or inhibit us today? The conversations with five Black female, trans and non-binary individuals on the knowledge and non-knowledge of their mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers and as far back as the knowledge carries them create a rich and powerful archive. They explore themes of motherhood, migration, cultural differences, beauty standards, queerness, kinship, death and rebirth. Their stories, although from five different countries, intertwine to weave a tapestry of herstory through the African diaspora. Through their testimonies the viewer discovers that ritual, memory and oral history can challenge the status quo.
Muttererde has been screened at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland), Centre for Contemporary Art Prague (Prague, Czech Republic) Berlin Feminist Film Week (Berlin, Germany), Rogaland Kunstsenter (Stavanger, Norway), Flux Factory (New York City, New York), Medellín Book Festival (Bogata, Columbia) and the Goethe Institut (Washington, D.C)
Featuring the stories of Camalo Gaskin, Tobi Ayedadjou, Niv Acosta, Natalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro and Fannie Sosa.
In collaboration with filmmaker Astrid Gleichmann.
Music: Marshall Vincent, Schwarz Don’t Crack
B Camera Operator: Ashton C Green
Animator: Mario Campos Castellano
Supported by the Decentralized Cultural Work Tempelhof-Schöneberg, District Kunst und Kulturforderung Berlin and A Prima Vista Filmproduktion.
TRAILER
