Nursery Rhymes. (Holy) Water
Director
Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński
Austria, Italy / 2025
4 min.
Original language
English
“Rock, water, fire, air. Rock, water, fire, air...” – the rhythmic singing of a children’s song reverberates as the performers move through a photo studio in delicate white dresses. But as the tempo accelerates and the musical theme shifts, the playful character of the rhyme gets transformed.
Nursery Rhymes. (Holy) Water deals with the forced baptism of three African girls – Asue*, Gambra* and Schiama* – on July 29, 1855 in Bruneck, South Tyrol. Renamed as Johanna, Angela and Aloisia, they were symbolically stripped of their origins. But Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński’s film upsets this narrative by positioning the girls here as active agents in their own story, stubbornly resisting the act of their effacement. “What sins, we wondered, what did we do?” they chant, reinforcing their resistance with determined gazes. The film, shot on 16 mm, invites us to consider how sound and image form our understanding of the past and underscores the power of Black sisterhood and creative reinterpretation to resist the erasure of history.
Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński’s artistic practice is manifest in multidisciplinary engagements with history and memory. Rooted in Black feminist theory, her research-based, process-oriented work examines the conditions of life in the African diaspora. She moves between documentation and speculation, creating immersive narratives that suspend linear time and fixed spatial boundaries. Kazeem-Kamiński’s works have been exhibited internationally. Her first monograph “H(a)untings / Heim-Suchungen” was published in 2023 by Sternberg Press.
Director Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński. Screenplay Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński. Cinematography Lydia Nsiah. Editing Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Lydia Nsiah. Music Bassano Bonelli Basano. Sound Design Bassano Bonelli Bassano, Elisabeth Mtasa. Production Design Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński. Costumes Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Delali Nuwordu. Producer Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński. Executive Producers Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Liesa Kovacs. Co-Producer Nick Prokesch. Art Director Guilherme Maggessi. With Joy Alphonsus, Henrie Dennis, Joyce Lang, Smarula Lang, Chioma Okoh, Obinne Wiebach-Dennis.
World sales sixpackfilm
Films: 2019: The Letter. 2021: Fleshbacks. 2025: Nursery Rhymes. (Holy) Water.
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