2026 New Orleans Film Festival

Experimental Shorts: Wakeful Nature

Available in 24d 21h 43m 57s
Available October 23, 2026 12:30 AM UTC
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7 films in package
First Breath on Mars
An experimental 16mm film that investigates colonial ideologies through aerodynamic, mechanical, and ballistic flight - including space tourism and ornithology.
Memory Replica (Ký Ức Ký Ức)
After hearing about a pagoda's mysterious disappearance, a trio of filmmakers embark on a journey to find an explanation.
Ode (An Acknowledgement of Sea Country)
An experimental, cameraless animation created from handmade macroalgae celluloid and bio-sonified seaweed. Developed in collaboration with CSIRO marine scientists, "Ode" embodies post-petrochemical cinema in a time of ecological crisis.
Good Neighbors Care
In a desperate attempt to rebrand, a chemical company in North Carolina promises clean water while their neighbors suffer due to the ecological disaster they’ve caused. Using chemically altered 16mm film of greenwashing campaigns, this film renders visible a crisis underpinned by corporate lies.
ęmí: freedomsong
An audio-visual ritual transforming collective grief into love through song - drawing on voices of global resistance from MLK to bell hooks in defiance of silencing and dispossessions worldwide.
SomatiQ Black: Neci
Black woman: reach backward through memory for the girl you once were. Meet the selves you buried, borrowed, and became. Tend to the home that was never lost, only waiting.
Not Dead
The birth of a young black couple's first child brings happiness, but also agony. The father experiences and expresses his dilemmas regarding the arrival, coexistence and departure of his beloved firstborn.
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Neci is what you call a girl when her name ain't tender enough. Between memory and becoming, a Black woman reaches backward for the girl she was and finds her still there—soft, stubborn, waiting. "SomatiQ Black: Neci" is a meditation on the sweet, hard work of coming home to yourself.


Director bio:

Born in the American South in 1984, Olamma Oparah draws from her Igbo-American, Afro-Antillian, and southern Black heritage to create a unique film practice centered on oral traditions and cyclical narratives.Her practice explores profound themes such as healing from genetically ingrained PTSD and the challenges women face in effecting internal change when their rage is deemed impolite or ignored.

  • Year
    2026
  • Runtime
    9 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Premiere
    World
  • Director
    Olamma Oparah
  • Producer
    Olamma Oparah
  • Cinematographer
    Logan Lynette Burroughs
  • Editor
    Josh Cleveland
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