Co-directed with Dr. Meghna Singh, Against the Wake is a hybrid feature currently in production.
A container ship leaves Mozambique, retracing the final route of the Portuguese slave ship São José Paquete de África. In December 1794, the ship sank off the coast of Cape Town while transporting enslaved Mozambicans to Brazil. Two hundred and twelve people drowned, their legs in shackles.
Aboard the modern vessel, an international crew of seafarers carries out its daily operations under the silent observation by a Mozambican woman. As the ship sails down the South African coastline, the film enters ports built on the profits of coal, sugar, cars and agriculture. At each container port, from Richards Bay to Cape Town, industrial landscapes are confronted by the violent histories of exploitation on which they were built.
RICHARDS BAY
DURBAN
"Against the Wake" is a visual poem that weaves historical reckoning with social critique, confronting viewers with an essential question: without collective memory, can genuine reconciliation and a just future exist?
Cape Town, Clifton Beach