FOLKESTONE DOC FEST: black outside: meditations on land
Film + Group Walk + Communal Meal
“The British outdoors is a contested landscape.” (We Are Nature, 2022)
With a particular focus on people of the African and Caribbean diasporas, Jaha Browne’s WE ARE NATURE and two short films from Folkestone filmmaker Rhiana Bonterre trace the personal, communal and ancestral experiences of people of colour with the land and natural surroundings of the UK and the Caribbean, uncovering affective histories of separation, alienation, longing and reconciliation.
WE ARE NATURE (9mins) is an immersive audio-driven film that asks you to listen. Why is it that BPoC communities in the UK do not feel like they belong in the outdoors? At a time when reconnecting with nature has never seemed so important, this film asks the question – is the British outdoors for everyone?
Meet BPoC women outdoor activists who are changing the story. It is an emotional response, a poetic and hybrid film consciously working to break stereotypes, acknowledge trauma without retraumatising the audience and inspire a new lens on the British outdoors.
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The Long Way Home, 2023 (Rhiana Bonterre, 9 mins) -A new film, exploring black embodiments in the landscape of Folkestone and Dover through interviews with members of the local black community.
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To Shake and Disturb and Bring Us Back to Ourselves, 2021 (Rhiana Bonterre, 9 mins) – a film merging experimental film and documentary techniques and aesthetics, discussing land and inheritance in the context of the Caribbean, specifically Trinidad.
