Three Short Films by Ja’Tovia Gary
3 Episodes
The aesthetically dynamic, shape-shifting films of artist and filmmaker Ja’Tovia Gary combine everything from heavily processed 16 mm archival materials to TikTok videos and woman-on-the-street-style interviews to put Black women and their lived experiences, past and present, in dialogue with one another. Drawing inspiration from Gary’s personal heroes like Toni Morrison and Nina Simone—footage of both of whom she poignantly incorporates into her works—her films are as optically imaginative as they are politically and intellectually rigorous, exploring ideas around care, connectivity, and memory through an intimate, Black feminist lens.
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05:59Episode 1An Ecstatic Experience
Episode 1
Directed by Ja’Tovia Gary • 2015 • United States
Employing intricately hand-altered archival footage of Black women speaking on the push for liberation and freedom, director Ja’Tovia Gary crafts a meditative invocation of transcendence as a means of restoration.
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26:18Episode 2Quiet as It’s Kept
Episode 2
Directed by Ja’Tovia Gary • 2023 • United States
Through a bold amalgamation of original and archival footage—of everything from Toni Morrison discussing her novel THE BLUEST EYE to TikTok videos to abstract animation—director Ja’Tovia Gary untangles complex ideas around beauty and Black womanhood.
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41:21Episode 3The Giverny Document
Episode 3
Directed by Ja’Tovia Gary • 2019 • United States
Filmed in Harlem, New York, and in Claude Monet’s historic gardens in Giverny, France, THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT is a multitextured cinematic poem that meditates on the safety and bodily autonomy of Black women. Filmmaker and artist Ja’Tovia Gary unlea...