Coded Black
Synopsis
This is an experience designed to be difficult – mentally and emotionally. Drawing from primary sources, historical records and scholarly analysis, CODED BLACK offers a journey through past atrocities and moments of triumph.
Explore two distinct, atmospheric scenes – a plantation and a modern 20th-century city – each filled with real historical documents and audio visual storytelling. With a structure that surfaces different content in each run, CODED BLACK is a narrative crafted for both personal reflection and educational engagement.
The game deals with the historical topic of slavery and racism, and therefore includes descriptions of violent acts, images of devices used for the chastisement of enslaved people, and archival imagery depicting victims of lynching. (Note, there is a museum version available with the lynching images disabled).
Official Selection International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2025 - Digital Storytelling Competition
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2026
Details
- Year
- 2025
- Type of project
- Game
- Running time
- 120 min
- Director
-
Maisha Wester
- Producer
- Nick Bax
- Editor
- Mary Going
- Screenwriter
- Maisha Wester; Desiree Reynolds
- Production Designer
- Abby Hambleton
- Composer
- Brandon Tanner
- Principal cast
- Karen David; Bel Odawa
- Other Lead Creative(s)
- Lucas Bax
Genre
Production Status
Production Company
Human Studio
Nick Bax27 Gilbert Street
Park Hill
Sheffield
S2 5QY
Page updates
This page was last updated on 6th March 2026. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Director: David Borenstein (director), Pavel Talankin (co-director)
Year: 2025
A Russian teacher secretly documents his small town school's transformation into a war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion, revealing the ethical dilemmas educators face amid propaganda and militarization. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2025 - World premiere Official Selection CPH DOX 2025 Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2025 BAFTA Awards 2026 - Winner - Best Documentary Academy Awards 2026 - Winner - Best Documentary Feature
A Season in Secret
Director: Matthew Berka
Year: 2027
A SEASON IN SECRET brings together material both close at hand and far away. It is a meditation on things glimpsed at a distance and the limits of perception. What lies behind the screen is hidden and may only be hinted at through the language of visible images and sounds. The film takes some of its cues from the Japanese aesthetic concept of Yūgen, described in part by the 15th-century aesthetician Zeami Motokiyo: “...to stand upon the shore and gaze after a boat that disappears behind distant islands.”
A Few Moments of Happiness (Quelques instants de bonheur)
Director: Shaden Safieddine Tazi
Year: 2026
A young Lebanese filmmaker in Paris watches Lebanon's war unfold on her phone from bed. In a state of paralysis, barely able to get out of bed, she calls her father everyday and begins recording her digital life. Using screen recordings, family voices, and silences, the film intimately portrays a generation witnessing their homeland's destruction remotely. Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere