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.
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Katrina Brook FloresDirector
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Katrina Brook FloresWriter
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Mamadou Lamine "Tukkiman" DiaoWriter
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Katrina Brook FloresProducer
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Michael P. ManuelProducer
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Mamadou Lamine "Tukkiman" DiaoProducer
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Macca MalikProducer
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Mamadou Lamine "Tukkiman" DiaoKey Cast"Tukki"
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Sojourner ZenobiaKey Cast"Ase"
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Project Type:Experimental, Short
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Genres:Sci-Fi, Fantasy, AfroFuturism, IndigenousFuturism
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Runtime:14 minutes 55 seconds
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Completion Date:February 28, 2022
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Production Budget:25,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:Senegal, United States
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Language:English
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Filmteenth International Film FestivalBethesda, Maryland
United States
June 18, 2022
North American Premiere
Official Selection -
43 CineFestival San AntonioSan Antonio
United States
July 6, 2022
Texas Premiere
Official Selection -
Middlebury New Filmmakers FestivalMiddlebury, Vermont
United States
August 24, 2022
Vermont Premiere
Official Selection -
Native Spirit Film FestivalEngland
United Kingdom
October 12, 2022
United Kingdom Premiere
Official Selection -
Quibdó África Film FestivalQuibdó, Chocó
Colombia
September 12, 2022
International Premiere
Official Selection & Nominee -
DC Black Film FestivalWashington DC
United States
August 18, 2022
DC Premiere
Official Selection -
Prince George's Film FestivalFort Washington, MD
United States
September 22, 2022
Fort Washington Premier
Official Selection -
Festival International du Film PanAfricain de CannesCannes
France
October 18, 2022
French Premiere
Official Selection & Finalist -
Charlotte Film FestivalCharlotte
United States
September 28, 2022
North Carolina Premiere
Official Selection -
Tallgrass Film FestivalWichita
United States
September 28, 2022
Wichita Premiere
Official Selection -
Soul West FestPhoenix
United States
October 21, 2022
Arizona Premeire
Official Selection -
No Coast Film FestivalEmporia, Kansas
United States
September 10, 2022
Kansas Premiere
Audience Choice Award Winner -
Baltimore International Black Film FestivalBaltimore
United States
October 6, 2022
Baltimore Premiere
Official Selection -
Love & Hope International Film FestivalBarcelona
Spain
September 15, 2023
Spain Premier
Official Selection -
Hayti Heritage Film FestivalDurham, NC
United States
March 6, 2023
Durham Premiere
Official Selection -
Pambujan International Film FestivalPambujan
Philippines
January 13, 2023
Philippines Premiere
Official Selection -
Black Film Festival of New OrleansNew 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 FestivalMadison
United States
April 13, 2023
Wisconsin Premier
Official Selection -
Afro Latino Film FestivalWaterbury, Connecticut
United States
June 17, 2023
Connecticut Premiere
Official Selection -
Festival de Cine Nahui OlllinDurango
Mexico
June 23, 2023
Mexico Premiere
Official Selection -
Black August Film FestivalPasadena, California
United States
August 20, 2023
California Premeire
Official Selection -
Pizza Sutra Short Film FestMilwaukee, Wisconsin
United States
August 19, 2023
Milwaukee Premiere
Official Selection -
Imagine This Women's Film FestivalBrooklyn NYC
United States
September 23, 2023
New York Premiere
Official Selection -
Buffalo International Film FestivalBuffalo, NY
United States
October 7, 2023
Western New York Premiere
Official Selection -
Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent FilmChapel Hill, NC
United States
October 3, 2023
Chapel Hill Premiere
Official Selection -
African Film Festival AtlantaAtlanta
United States
September 21, 2023
Atlanta Premiere
Official Selection -
Lake Placid Film FestivalLake 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 FestivalLake Placid
United States
October 27, 2023
Lake Placid Premiere
Official Selection -
The Richard Harris Film FestivalChicago
Ireland
October 28, 2023
Irish Premiere
Official Selection -
The Black Harvest Film FestivalChicago
United States
November 5, 2023
Chicago Premiere
Official Selection
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.
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.