Of Us premiers on Nowness as part of In Motion
Directed by Liara Barussi. Produced by Jukebox Collective. Starring Jukebox Academy
Commissioned by Dr Aleema Gray, British Library for Beyond the Bassline, 500 years of Black British Music
Connecting movement, migration stories and water symbolism in South Wales, Liara Barussi honors Tiger Bay as one of the UK’s oldest Black communities
Connecting ancestral legacies and the thread between body and memory, Liara Barussi directs and choreographs short film Of Us, honoring the legacy of the UK’s Black diaspora through movement. Commissioned by Dr Aleema Gray for the British Library, and produced by Jukebox Collective, the film pays homage to Tiger Bay in Cardiff, South Wales as one of the UK’s oldest Black communities, reflecting on the Atlantic Ocean and its place in the history of the Black diaspora.
“Of Us journeys into the whispers of our seas, intertwining stories of migration with the universal symbolism of water – an homage to the untold stories that lie beneath the surface of the waves, waiting to be heard and remembered. We wanted the dance to feel organic and narrative-driven, rather than choreographed.”
Shooting in South Wales, Barussi sought to mirror the rippling and expanding legacies connected to its coastline, working with a young cast reflecting the region’s diverse diaspora, all students from Jukebox Collective’s Academy Programme. Guiding the cast to reconnect with their ancestry, Barussi developed the choreography around dance traditions from communities with strong connections to water – from water drumming, or liquindi, performed by the Baka people of Cameroon, to the ocean-inspired movements of the Ekombi Dance among the Efik people in Calabar, Nigeria.
Translating stories through these movements, rooted in everyday life and the emotions and histories we inherit, Barussi constructs Of Us as a celebration of heritage and preserved traditions, grounded by the rugged beauty of Wales’ coastline, and the collective memory carried by the ocean beyond.
