Combining reality and fiction, archive and critical fable, reconfiguring the past and imagining alternative futures, Black Gaze cinema deconstructs institutional racism to reveal its origin and permanence, at the same time unmasking its horrifying everyday formulations and envisaging Afro-futures. 

In ‘Time to Change’ (2024), Pocas Pascoal reminds us of the urgent need for change, proposing a critical gaze on colonialism and capitalism and their impact on biodiversity. Through images from the colonial archive, she demonstrates that the destruction of ecosystems has far-reaching roots, inscribed in the exploitation of the earth, big-game hunting and the abuse of humans by other humans. 

‘I Am Not Pilatus’ (2019), by Welket Bungué, is an artistic anti-racist manifesto based on a dialogue around two mobile phone videos shared on social media: one opposes a civil rights demonstration on Avenida da Liberdade; the other denounces the police brutality in Bairro da Jamaica that sparked the demonstration. By stating ‘I am not Pilatus’, Bungué takes a political stance: I don’t wash my hands of things, I don’t ignore, don’t look away – I confront injustice. The question is implicit: and what about us? 

‘Coronas in the Sky’ (2021), by Melissa Rodrigues, was created during an artistic residency mid-pandemic. Amid silence, sirens and exhausting moves, a poem-performance materialises, denouncing racial, social and gender inequalities, questioning power and dancing over the colonial wound. A light points to the sky or to the future.