The Specter of Ancestors Becoming
<p>For the past four years, along with artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen and the majority of the Vietnamese-Senegalese community, RAW Material Company has been committed to bringing out of the shadows and shedding light on the stories of this community’s strong female figures – mothers and pillars of families that are an integral part of the Senegalese social fabric.</p> <p>The Vietnamese-Senegalese community was built from the French colonial enterprise. In its evolution, love, courage, patience, solidarity, resistance as well as violence have been consequent parts of its formation.</p> <p>In <em>The Specter of Ancestors Becoming</em>, Tuan Andrew Nguyen goes beyond this history and works in the space of memory, proposing not only an answer to the question “What might memory look like?” but more importantly “What might the memory of what has never been seen look like?”. Nguyen deals with the spaces of mourning and loss engendered by the silence of memory, and along with his collaborators in the film, makes the choice to remember.</p>
Artists: Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Producer: Dulcie Abrahams Altass, Mame Farma Fall, Marie Cissé Fall, Tabara Korka Ndiaye, Marie Helene Pereira, Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy, Kerry Etola Viderot
Contributors: Dulcie Abrahams Altass, Marie Helene Pereira, Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Koyo Kouoh, Justin Phan, Claire Gomis, Merry Beye Diouf, Marie Nguyen Thiva Tran
Translators: Fatimata Racine Wane, Mai-Anh Peterson
Transcription: Marie Cissé, Kerry Etola Viderot
Designer: Rasmus Koch Studio