wounds need air but the air is infected and I cannot breathe
10https://genius.com/The-left-statistics-lyrics
https://genius.com/Bambu-bread-lyrics
https://www.afrobeatmusic.net/html/rise.html
https://youtu.be/pI9Bo5I0KfA?t=721
♡
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Some notes on this video's creation:
(Includes some spoilers for the tv series Watchmen)
Although this video isn't 'about' Watchmen per se, an impetus for its creation came from finishing the series and being left dissatisfied by the conversation it presented. After episode 6, which I did quite like (but I saw it as the *beginning* of digging deeper into things), focus shifted heavily towards plot gears, and suddenly all the characters we were just starting to get to know became sidelined. Instead plot, thematic centering, character, and screen time shifted focus to the two 'BIG (and *very* white) CHARACTERS OF WATCHMEN', Dr. Manhattan and Veidt.
Not only were the characters sidelined, but the discussions around race and colonialism (and the very absent discussion around class and its intersection with everything) faded into the background. We just barely scratched the surface of the colonialism that took place in Vietnam before Watchmen decided 'okay that's enough about that', Lady Trieu remains a non-character and we learn nothing about her mother/daughter except in relation to Veidt. We never really see how taking Will's nostalgia changes Angela, changes the way she thinks about race and racism.
I came out of this series feeling like the stories and voices of those that are struggling the most, that are most vulnerable and invisible and marginalized... they remain unheard, unvoiced, unsupported, unrecognized. And furthermore, the themes and structures that affect us the most were deflected and appropriated towards a different, and very 'white and imperialist-Christian-feeling' narrative.
I am not a gatekeeper for anyone's story, but I hope that with this video I can make the audience reflect on how we might focus more energy on listening to the voice of those people without a voice, surrendering some of our own to give others' strength and presence and power so they do not suffocate - until we are thriving alongside each other.
And more, layered with the context and history of racism, colonialism, imperialism... I hope, as a white person that is in a relatively privileged position despite my own struggles through life, that we - those of us feeling most comfortable in life - can sacrifice some of our comfort to help heal the world around us that has been shattered. Shattered by structures that have, and continue to, underpin our 'world order'. And more concretely, that we can fight against these structures (CAPITALISM, COLONIALISM, IMPERIALISM, DOGMATIC AND MISSIONARY RELIGION AND OTHER POWER STRUCTURES THAT DESIRE CONTROL OVER THE PEOPLE) and invest our conscious effort into changing them, into finding something better for humanity and the world we live in.
If wounds need air, I hope those of us with air to spare can find it in ourselves to share it, rather than just using it to become stronger and more powerful and consume more and more.