The Mourning of the Sea

The Mourning of the Sea was shot at Cidade Velha in Cape Verde in 2016. Located off Africa's northwest coast, this town was the first European colonial settlement to asure slave trade to the America’s. An estimate of 4 to 6 million enslaved persons were sold and sent to the Americas from there, mainly to Brazil.
The film, like the city, echoes the deep sadness of the past in the present. Looping the narrative from the poem "Um r’bêra pa mar" by Ovidio Martins (1928-1999) the imagery and sound lingers between memory and sensory perception, between what is remembered and what remains of memory.