Special Events
Film Screening: Mami Wata + Drexciya
Sun Feb 23, 2025 | 3:30 PM
VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre | 1181 Seymour Street
Still from CJ Obasi, Mami Wata, 2023, Courtesy of the Artist
Join us for a screening of Mami Wata (2023), a black-and-white fantasy thriller film, written and directed by CJ Obasi, based on West African folklore. The evening will also include the short doc Drexciya (2010), a portrait of an abandoned public swimming facility located in Accra, Ghana, directed and produced by Akosua Adoma Owusu.
This event is being presented as part of the Gallery’s 2025 Celebrating Black Futures programming. Find out more »
ABOUT THE FILMS
Mami Wata, 2023
Directed by C.J. “Fiery” Obasi
119 minutes
Waves smack across the shore at night as a young woman silently knots her braids, rises, and walks into the ocean. She has given herself to Mami Wata, the water goddess. So begins Fiery Obasi’s tremendous, dreamy fable, shot in inky, lustrous black and white and playing out an elemental tale of magic, devotion, and generational restlessness. In this matriarchal village, Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) is the priestess and power broker, but there is a growing unease among the people, a suspicion that the old ways no longer hold sway…
Drexciya, 2011
Directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu
12 minutes
A portrait of an abandoned public swimming facility located in Accra, Ghana set on the Riviera. The Riviera at one time was an upscale development, consisting of luxury high-rises and five star hotels. Since the 1970s, the Riviera has fallen into a disheveled state. This short documentary was inspired by afro-futurist myths propagated by the underground Detroit-based band Drexciya. They suggest that Drexciya is a mythical underwater subcontinent populated by the unborn children of African women thrown overboard during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. These children have adapted and evolved to breathe underwater.