Nigerian-American, queer, and agender multi-disciplinary artist/archivist, nwaobiala has released their latest short film, Chasing. Co-directed by Natasha Ayoo, it features Nyokabi Kimari in acting and music roles.
“I grew up in a family with unrealistically high expectations. Thus, I became a perfectionist. I’ve always felt an intense pressure to know everything, say all the right things, and do things perfectly the first time. This past year, I slowly started accepting that I will never be perfect.” nwaobiala said in an interview with The Rustin Times while speaking on what inspired the project. “Even more, I spent a huge portion of the last few years being unwilling to accept the change happening in my life. I forcefully relived the past in my dreams and fantasies. I cried and prayed for it to resurface. One day, my therapist told me, ‘when you let go, you can measure what you lost, but you can’t measure what you’ll gain.’ As of late, I’ve been trying incredibly hard to embrace change and accept what comes.”
The indie film also features a collection of quotes by Susan Sontag, from “As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks 1964-1980”, Rainer Maria Rilke, from “The Voices in The Book of Images” and Sarah Schulman, from “Conflict Is Not Abuse.”
nwaobiala’s work disassembles and reassembles the Black physical/spiritual being within African historical and cultural contexts. They also drive conversations about queerness and gender identity within the collective, cultural, and contemporary memory of the African Diaspora. They hope the project can get audiences to reflect on how they are hard on themselves and break the cycle.
“We are oftentimes our greatest critic. So I want folks to consider the power of accepting ourselves as we are. I want the audience to take a break from chasing their fantasy self or their fantasy love. What is here in this present moment?”
nwaobiala is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and uses they/them and he/him pronouns. They are a 2020 Bakanal de Afrique Artist Fellow and a 2020 Kolaj Institute Collage Lab Artist. You can view more of their work on nwaobiala.com.
Watch Chasing below.
chasing (2021) from nwaobiala on Vimeo.
