INDIGO

INDIGO is an afro-surrealist poetic visual voyage depicting the ethereal beauty of Black hair. The film follows two black German womxn and their different views on identity. With an open narrative structure partly based on poetry, the story eventually solidifies in a hair braiding ritual that offers healing through the transmission of ancestral knowledge. The film‘s artistic research is based on traditional African hair braiding rituals and the color indigo as a symbol for diasporic life. A conversation between the diaspora and the continent, tradition and the contemporary, past and future INDIGO is a poetic statement rather than a story.

INDIGO was made by a group of black & brown filmmakers, mothers, and female-identifying individuals in all key positions. INDIGO won the Special Prize at the International Short Film Festival, Berlin, and the 2nd Place at Monologues & Poetry International Film Fest in California in 2023, and was recognised as culturally valuable by the German film commission (FBW).

After the success of INDIGO at festivals around the world, in 2026, INDIGO is reinterpreted as a video installation and divided across three screens, each screen telling one part of the story: 1. Khodi (English: the seed), 2. Alele (When your water touched my earth), and 3. Pii (water).

The 3-channel-installation setup breaks open the narrative format of the short film and opens the work up to new levels of interpretation. Emphasizing the Afro-surrealist aspects of the work, the installation calls into question the perception of time and space as well as the beginning and ending of a story.