Zwarte Ibis (2024)

Back Speaks Back and If I Can't Dance in collaboration with Africadelic, Caribbean Creativity and Re/Presenting Europe present the première of the short film 'Zwarte Ibis'. Dedicated to showcasing the film and the voices of those involved in its making, the evening includes a singing bowl performance by House Of Vibrations and a panel discussion on black intimacy. 

Zwarte Ibis portrays a young Black woman’s quest for intimacy in a world where the boundaries between the individual and the collective, the political and the personal, the past and the present, become ever blurrier. The short film is an afro-surrealistic reverie, poetically re-imagining our contemporary conceptions of relationships with the self and with imagined communities through a questioning of historically and culturally imposed views on Black people’s intimate lives in the diaspora. 

The film is a commission of If I Can’t Dance within the frame of their Edition IX – Bodies and Technologies biennial programme (2022-23), and has been developed in partnership with CBK Zuidoost and the 2023 BijlmAIR residency programme. The project is supported by the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie. 

Black Speaks Back, established in 2016 in Brussels, now based in Amsterdam, is a Belgian-Dutch grassroots platform and media collective dedicated to amplifying Black narratives in the Netherlands and Belgium. The group facilitates discussion, conducts artistic-based research, and creates poetic short films. Their work has been featured in film festivals, conferences, and cultural centers across the world.

In 2022 Black Speaks Back was commissioned by the Amsterdam-based art organization If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution to create a new work for the If I Can’t Dance Edition IX – Bodies and Technologies biennial programme (2022-23). With Edition IX, If I Can’t Dance tackles the complex and plural entanglements between bodies and technologies —from experiences of pleasure and intimacy to the ongoing embodied realities of colonial and ableist frameworks. If I Can’t Dance is supported by Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and Mondriaan Fund with additional support for Edition IX – Bodies and Technologies from Ammodo and Het Cultuurfonds. 

Africadelic is an Amsterdam-based platform and festival promoting African and African diasporic cultural creativity, diversity and activism in the Netherlands.Caribbean Creativity is a non-profit organization committed to the promotion of Caribbean and Caribbean-themed cinema in the Netherlands and beyond.

Melkweg often hosts different types of programmes at the same time, such as concerts, club nights and films. Please note that there may occasionally be some noise pollution from other programmes during the screening.