The entire project is always oscillating in between uplift momentum and downward fall. For the past year or so I’ve been exploring this idea of using new animation tools for storytelling in a way to include a range of conversations into Black cinema. By no means can I say I’m close to answering that question of “Am I making it with this?” but at the very least I want to add to the conversation that includes a variety of tools that are available to young Black filmmakers. I’ve always admired Bradford Young’s ability to be technical but not rely on it, rather relying on his intentions and how being in the moment has more richness to the process even when it feels like creative free fall at the moment. I heard someone once say that our work is always ahead of us. And I feel like this at this very moment. The work is starting to live in and breathe in its own way.

Kordae Jatafa Henry also known as Tafa is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and visual artist working between the real and the virtual to explore new worlds through music films, dance performance, and realtime media. His release of his 2019 film Earth Mother, Sky Father short music film has led him to take the stage at the 2019 Design Indaba Conference, being a recent nominee for the shots 2020 ‘New Director of the Year’, and exhibiting art in museums and festivals all over the world. Through live-action music films, installations, dance, game engine environments, and mythology, Kordae’s work invites new ways of seeing humans, folklore, mysticism, pop-culture, post-genre music, labor, and creation stories as tools to explore the radical imagination.