KUMINA QUEEN
Special Features: Q&A with filmmaker Nyasha Laing
Imogene "Queenie" Kennedy was a priestess in post-colonial Jamaica who catapulted her African spiritual practice into renown. But after centuries of erasure, what remains of the dance between the living and the dead? In the wake of the loss of her mother, filmmaker Nyasha Laing travels into the heart of the Jamaican countryside to research Kumina, an ancestral practice, and one of the most well-known Kumina Queens. Born in St. Thomas in the late 1920s, Queenie would have been discarded as a witch had she lived at any other time in history. For centuries, colonial laws and social taboos made her traditions of Kumina and Revivalism misunderstood and feared. But the end of colonialism in Jamaica created the rare opportunity for her to share her practice on the world stage. She died in 1998. Today, Queenie's legacy is palpable in Jamaican art, music and identity. In this visually emotional film, artists, scholars, practitioners and the filmmaker meditate on the values and struggles inherent in holding onto a spiritual life. (Note adapted from Women Make Movies.) DIR/SCR/PROD Nyasha Laing. U.S., 2022, color, 57 min. In English. NOT RATED
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 57 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, June 10, 2023
Genre: Documentary - biography