Overview

Energy cannot be destroyed - it can only be transformed. The legacy of enslavement strips the fullness of life from those caught in its suffocating nightmare. In moving and static images, Director Charlotte Brathwaite in collaboration with Photographer Malick Welli imagine the dreams and nightmares of forcibly enslaved Muslim scholar Omar ibn Said. In shifting projections and large form photographs – the work unfolds as a cinematic ghost song that connects Said’s stolen spirit back to the living presence of his ancestors across the oceans, across time and space. FORGOTTEN PARADISE transforms the darkness of captivity into the light of knowing freedom, and loving family.