In The Making, Longlist - Personal Project

Mama (Contains harrowing live footage)

Meena Ayittey

Great Guns

The murder of George Floyd has sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the globe – and with such protests come renewed conversations around police brutality, discrimination, and racism in society. As a personal response to the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, Great Guns director Meena Ayittey has launched a harrowing new short, cataloguing the murders of innocent people in a way that doesn’t shirk away from the violence affecting society. Entitled ‘Mama’, the film includes a powerful monologue from Arkansas State Senator Stephanie Flowers, and footage from police brutality across the US. "For any black or brown person watching these images it's like watching a family member, a father, an uncle, a son, being killed again and again. I feel that both the media and police in the USA in particular, often dehumanise these victims. I wanted to reverse this. I wanted people to remember that George Floyd, Philando Castle, Rodney King, Eric Garner, Michael Brown Jr and all the victims of police brutality had mothers. And to feel that insurmountable and devastating loss that anyone would feel after the murder of a family member.”