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Selected Works
Half Memory 
Is My Living In Vain 
Pastoral Malaise 
From Where We Land
Bodies In Dissent 
All That You Can’t Leave Behind
ALTEA

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Is My Living In Vain (2022)




Is My Living in Vain (2022), 40mins,  Scanned 16mm and Super8. colour and black and white. 

Is My Living in Vain is a meditation on the continuing history and emancipatory potential of the Black church as a space of diasporic belonging, affirmation and community organising. Weaving together archival imagery, oral histories and  16mm shot footage on location. The film examines the  emancipatory potential of churches  as spaces of “infrapolitics” by exploring the sonic, political, spiritual and existential connections between specific communities across West  Philadelphia and South East London.  

Is My Living in Vain is commissioned and produced by Gasworks, London in partnership with Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland; and Le Magasin CNAC (Centre National d'Art Contemporain), Grenoble. 


All images are stills from Is My Living in Vain. Courtesy of the artist.

© Ufuoma Essi 2022