What could the images of Africans portrayed in Renaissance art tell us if they would speak? What was their history?
What was the historical social context of the time they arrived in Europe?
Were they all enslaved people or servants?
The multilingual documentary explores the roles of Africans and their descendants in Renaissance Europe as revealed in compelling paintings, drawings, sculptures, and printed books of the period, interviewing scholars of Art History, History, Black Studies, Black activists, Art Curators and Artists
LOCATIONS
Europe: Florence, Venice, Rome, Lisbon, Lagos, Seville, Madrid, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussell, Granada, Magdeburg, Berlin, Copenaghen, Palermo,Naples
U.S.: New York, Baltimore,Cincinnati
Brazil: Salvador de Bahia, Rio De Janiero
Ghana: Cape Coast
running time: 54'
company productions Do The Right Films LLC
director: Fred Kudjo Kuwornu
Producers: Fred Kudjo Kuwornu -Lorenzo Fabbri- Peter Manu
release 2024
This work was made possible through the support of:
University of Minnesota
Open Society Foundations
Africa No Filter (a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors)
“In Florence, Alessandro De' Medici, the first Duke of the De' Medici's family was almost certainly theson of an African woman, probably a servant. He was an illegitimate child”
DR. JOHN BRACKETT -- Professor of Art History at the University of Cincinnati
“They served in the Royal courts.They were priests. They were soldiers. We have a number of documented examples of African presence in European cities”
DR. KATE LOWE -- Professor of Renaissance History at Queen Mary University of London
“These relationships are fundamental to understand what society we are today.
Renaissance art doesn't just reflect the world, but it helps create the world...
The way Black figures appear today in movies, in advertisement, in society,
can be traced right back to the Renaissance”
DR. PAUL KAPLAN -- Professor of Art History at Purchase College
