LOVE LETTERS FOR OUR ANCESTORS

Love Letters for Our Ancestors is a participatory animated film about all the ancestors, unnamed in the history books, who guide us in creating liberatory movements. Artist Lily Xie worked with Mari Gashaw, Cierra Peters, Rei Fielder, and other staff at Boston Ujima Project to design an emergent, collaborative filmmaking process. The film audio was collected through short interviews with Ujima members at the Assembly of Black Possibilities. At the Assembly, participants were asked to share a love letter to an ancestor who guides them in the liberatory movement work they do. The visual animations were created with Ujima members at Animating Love, a workshop where participants brought photos of their ancestors and wrote love letters that were collaged into the film. The film debuted at Ujima’s 2024 Mattapan Assembly in April 2024. Love Letters for Our Ancestors was created with Boston Ujima Project staff, members, and community members, and stewarded and supported by Creative Wildfire.

Watch the film

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This project was supported and made possible by Creative Wildfire, a cultural organizing project led by the Climate Justice Alliance, Movement Generation, and New Economy Coalition.

Photos by Ebony Gustave.