In an Amsterdam archival document from 1632, written on behalf of a sugar merchant with whom she was in conflict, the free Black woman Francisca de Angola is described as a troublemaker. But from between the lines, a different Francisca emerges: someone who conducted business and played a connecting role within Amsterdam’s Black immigrant community in the 17th century.
In this animated, interactive VR opera by Tamara Shogaolu (who won the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling with Un(re)solved, 2021), you follow the journalist Idil (voiced by soprano Claron McFadden), a Black woman who increasingly feels unseen and unheard in present-day Amsterdam. Guided by a mythical narrator (Adriane Lenox), she encounters her largely forgotten ancestor Francisca (mezzo-soprano Carla Nahadi Babelegoto) somewhere in a liminal world between being remembered and being erased.
It is through this encounter, beyond the constraints of physical archives, that Idil and Francisca realize that only together can they find and preserve their voices. As the XR user, you not only witness this process, but also become part of it.
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