An intimate documentary short exploring the ancestral survival strategies Black women use to navigate and fully live in a world that is hostile to Black female life.

This intimate documentary short is inspired by a theory developed in my dissertation, Living With Death: Black American Trauma in the Age of the Spectacular.

If trauma lives in our DNA, why can’t resilience? The Periscopic Gaze is anchored by the personal reflections of three sisters’ memories of the spoken and unspoken wisdom gleaned from their deceased mother. A visual rumination on memory, family lore, embodied knowledge, and the history embedded in our DNA, The Periscopic Gaze uses one family’s story as the entry point to illuminate questions of inherited memory, inherited trauma, and inherited resilience.

Creative Team
Kalima Young, Writer, Director, Producer
Julia Golonka, Editor
Adam Schwartz, Composer and Sound Design
Dezimond Fisher, Director of Photography
Lynn Tomlinson, Clay on Glass Animation
Tynesha Ford, 2D Animation
Composer/Sound Designer, Adam Schwartz
Zachary Trees, Production Sound
Natalya Brusilovsky, Production Assistant
Ali Truman, Production Assistant
Aj Hyde, Storyboard

Dates
Principal Photography: Summer 2022
Post Production: Complete

Teaser Trailer

Behind the Scenes

This project has been generously supported by the 2022 Saul Zaents Innovation Fund and The Center of Fine Arts and Communication at Towson University.

FOR FULL INFORMATION ON THE FILM VISIT THE PERISCOPIC GAZE WEBSITE.