Oríkì Oshunby Elena Herminia GuzmanScreening at THE BRATTLE, Sept. 17, 2026
An experimental visual praise poem dedicated to Orisha Oshun, the mother of the sweet waters. Oríkì Oshun uses sacred stories, drumming, and ritual to weave a divine visual tapestry.
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What inspired you to make Oríkì Oshun, and how did the idea for the film develop?
You describe your work as “Black ritual films". Can you tell us more about this genre of filmmaking and what it means to you?
What made you choose an experimental and performative approach for the film, and was there a particular moment or scene that was especially meaningful to you?
What role did sound and music play in the film?
What are you working on at the moment, and are there any new ideas, themes, or forms you’re interested in exploring in your next projects?
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Elena Herminia Guzman is an Afro-Boricua director and producer raised in the Bronx with deep roots in the LES. As an educator, she teaches feminist filmmaking, Black cinema, production, and visual anthropology. Her work as a filmmaker has been supported by PBS, Black Public Media, the Independent Public Media Foundation, and the Scribe Foundation amongst others. She is the director and producer of the film Smile4Kime (2023), a short experimental hybrid documentary that uses animation and live-action footage to tell the stories of how two friends transcend, time, space, and even death to find that their friendship lives on. The film received an honorable mention for the Jean Rouch Award at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival and was nominated for the LOLA Shorts Award at the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival. Smile4Kime had its international broadcast premiere on AfroPop, PBS. She is also producing a docuseries called Conjure that explores the traditions of African American Hoodoo in the United States. She is a co-founder of Ethnocine Collective, a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and a producer for the podcast Bad Feminists Making Films.
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