Dédé (Ancestor)
"Dédé (Ancestor)" delves into diasporic female identity through an exploration of Director/Animator's Bété ancestry, a tribe in central Ivory Coast. The film is a journey into the region’s feminine cosmology and folkloric traditions, guided by feminine icons such as tribal fertility carvings, masks, sculptures, mythological fables and deities. With a deliberately non-linear and abstract narrative, the film prominently features copper motifs, reflecting the traditional metalwork culture of the Ivory Coast, along with it’s other textural and material histories. By drawing upon the spiritual iconography of the Bété people and other tribal groups in the Ivory Coast, "Dédé" examines the divine female figure in West African sculpture. The film translates these forms, traditionally found in wooden and bronze sculptures, into animation through charcoal drawings and frame-by-frame relief engraving on copper.
