Assaman

Assaman is a cosmic twin love story with the future. A man named Tukki meets a sky-being named Asé. Together, they become suspended in a visual and sonic examination in search of flourishing joy and self-care. What may seem a simple love story quickly expands into a kaleidoscope of introspective, interconnected and intergenerational movement and moments. Assaman holds you for 14 minutes in an Afrofuturist and Indigenous sonic vision - a hypnotic journey. Assaman means "the sky" in Wolof.

Logline: A love story with the future kaleidoscopes in a cosmic twin encounter.

  • Katrina Brook Flores
    Director
  • Katrina Brook Flores
    Writer
  • Mamadou Lamine "Tukkiman" Diao
    Writer
  • Katrina Brook Flores
    Producer
  • Michael P. Manuel
    Producer
  • Mamadou Lamine "Tukkiman" Diao
    Producer
  • Macca Malik
    Producer
  • Mamadou Lamine "Tukkiman" Diao
    Key Cast
    "Tukki"
  • Sojourner Zenobia
    Key Cast
    "Ase"
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, Fantasy, AfroFuturism, IndigenousFuturism
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 55 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 28, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Senegal, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Filmteenth International Film Festival
    Bethesda, Maryland
    United States
    June 18, 2022
    North American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • 43 CineFestival San Antonio
    San Antonio
    United States
    July 6, 2022
    Texas Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival
    Middlebury, Vermont
    United States
    August 24, 2022
    Vermont Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Native Spirit Film Festival
    England
    United Kingdom
    October 12, 2022
    United Kingdom Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Quibdó África Film Festival
    Quibdó, Chocó
    Colombia
    September 12, 2022
    International Premiere
    Official Selection & Nominee
  • DC Black Film Festival
    Washington DC
    United States
    August 18, 2022
    DC Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Prince George's Film Festival
    Fort Washington, MD
    United States
    September 22, 2022
    Fort Washington Premier
    Official Selection
  • Festival International du Film PanAfricain de Cannes
    Cannes
    France
    October 18, 2022
    French Premiere
    Official Selection & Finalist
  • Charlotte Film Festival
    Charlotte
    United States
    September 28, 2022
    North Carolina Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Tallgrass Film Festival
    Wichita
    United States
    September 28, 2022
    Wichita Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Soul West Fest
    Phoenix
    United States
    October 21, 2022
    Arizona Premeire
    Official Selection
  • No Coast Film Festival
    Emporia, Kansas
    United States
    September 10, 2022
    Kansas Premiere
    Audience Choice Award Winner
  • Baltimore International Black Film Festival
    Baltimore
    United States
    October 6, 2022
    Baltimore Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Love & Hope International Film Festival
    Barcelona
    Spain
    September 15, 2023
    Spain Premier
    Official Selection
  • Hayti Heritage Film Festival
    Durham, NC
    United States
    March 6, 2023
    Durham Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Pambujan International Film Festival
    Pambujan
    Philippines
    January 13, 2023
    Philippines Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Black Film Festival of New Orleans
    New Orleans
    United States
    March 15, 2023
    Louisiana Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Festival International du Film sur L'Art (Le FIFA)
    Montréal
    Canada
    March 26, 2023
    Canada Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Wisconsin Film Festival
    Madison
    United States
    April 13, 2023
    Wisconsin Premier
    Official Selection
  • Afro Latino Film Festival
    Waterbury, Connecticut
    United States
    June 17, 2023
    Connecticut Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Festival de Cine Nahui Olllin
    Durango
    Mexico
    June 23, 2023
    Mexico Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Black August Film Festival
    Pasadena, California
    United States
    August 20, 2023
    California Premeire
    Official Selection
  • Pizza Sutra Short Film Fest
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    United States
    August 19, 2023
    Milwaukee Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Imagine This Women's Film Festival
    Brooklyn NYC
    United States
    September 23, 2023
    New York Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Buffalo International Film Festival
    Buffalo, NY
    United States
    October 7, 2023
    Western New York Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film
    Chapel Hill, NC
    United States
    October 3, 2023
    Chapel Hill Premiere
    Official Selection
  • African Film Festival Atlanta
    Atlanta
    United States
    September 21, 2023
    Atlanta Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Lake Placid Film Festival
    Lake Placid, NY
    United States
    October 26, 2023
    Lake Placid Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Urban Mediamakers Film Festival (UMFF)
    Lilburn, GA
    United States
    October 21, 2023
    Lilburn Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Lake Placid Film Festival
    Lake Placid
    United States
    October 27, 2023
    Lake Placid Premiere
    Official Selection
  • The Richard Harris Film Festival
    Chicago
    Ireland
    October 28, 2023
    Irish Premiere
    Official Selection
  • The Black Harvest Film Festival
    Chicago
    United States
    November 5, 2023
    Chicago Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Katrina Brook Flores

Katrina Brook Flores aka El La Katrina is a multi-practice award winning artist and storyteller using filmmaking, placemaking, installation, music, movement and wearable design. Flores' IndigiQueer Chicanx experience informs their work addressing boundary-spanning, border-crossing, and binary-breaking. Their work seeks to offer solution and healing toward a flourishing future rooted in joyful play and ancestral teachings. El La Katrina was founding Arts-In-Education Director for OMAI & FirstWave and Co-Director of Breakin’ The Law: International Festival of Urban Movement at UW-Madison. After moving to Chicago, they served as Community Programs Director at RedMoon Theater and B-Series co-curator at The Dance Center at Columbia College in Chicago. Before becoming a full-time artist in 2019, El La Katrina worked as the COO of The Firehouse Community Arts Center in the North Lawndale neighborhood to assist in building the capacities of the organization in their inaugural year of funding with the Chicago CRED Program to achieve a transformative reduction in Chicago gun violence with justice involved youth. El La Katrina’s directorial film debut, Assaman, was finished in February 2022 as part of their 2020 & 2021 Dark Matter Residency with Elastic Arts Foundation. Flores also produced, wrote and starred in a virtual healing and hope sonic theater project entitled SEED POLLINATE BLOOM addressing the impact of COVID-19 and the Social Uprisings during that time on Black, Indigenous and Black Indigenous communities. Following El La Katrina’s Dark Matter Residency with Elastic Arts Foundation, they now serve on the curatorial board for both The Dark Matter Residency and AfroFuturist Weekend Festival in Chicago.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I am an author of story. We tell the stories that are ours to tell. My stories open space for ancestors and future ancestors to commune and co-conspire with the now. Assaman came to me through the passing of my grandfather in 2015 where I began to uncover some family history that would reveal roots I have to Senegal and then a chance encounter performing at an Indigenous youth benefit concert in 2019 where I met Tukkiman. He insisted he had a vision upon seeing me and that we were supposed to work together but I was cautious. He came to my artist studio a few days later and I photographed him in an installation I was working on. It was then we found out we shared Senegalese roots and were born within 24 hours of each other. We agreed to self identify as Cosmic Twins and began a 3 year journey of working creatively together. Asssaman is the culmination of this creative collaboration and mutual inspiration as Cosmic Twins. I’m very interested in stories that peel back layers of nuance, lift up ideas for flourishing and push boundaries through innovation, experimentation and questions. I enjoy storytelling that is both strange and strangely familiar. My approach to storytelling goes deep into the in-between spaces and seeks to create new spaces, to cause some friction in hopes of sparking new ideas and new conversations that push the accepted boundaries of possibility into new and exciting places. Assaman is my directorial debut.