Project Detail

Modupe

A hand holding a lit taper candle lights a larger pillar candle placed on a metal candle holder, with a dark blurred background.

Synopsis

An experimental documentary that unfolds as a ceremony of queer belonging, inheritance, and sound. At its heart is a dialogue with Afro-Cuban priestess and musician Amelia Pedroso, whose legacy is invoked through archival traces, letters, and performance. Narrated as a letter to an ancestor, the film situates the search for connection within an interior, oceanic dreamscape where water, memory, and ritual become both setting and subject.
Cinematically, MODUPE moves between a stylised ensemble rehearsal and a sacred library-archive. The ensemble of voice, drum, and dance provides the film’s pulse, collapsing rehearsal and ritual into one. Deep blue light, reflective surfaces, and submerged imagery create a sensorial architecture that is both intimate and expansive, with water presence throughout evoking both flood and transformation.
Formally, the film resists linear storytelling, privileging atmosphere, rhythm, and sonic immersion. Objects, archives, and sacred materials hold the same cinematic weight as bodies in performance, reframing the archive as altar and sound as shrine. Narrative unfolds through resonance rather than resolution, drawing the viewer into a space of listening and reflection. MODUPE proposes cinema as a vessel for inheritance, where identity is fluid, memory is alive and liberation is lived through sound.

Details

Year
2026
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
18 min
Director
Evan Ifekoya
Producer
Ese Onojeruo
Executive Producer
Hannah Bush Bailey
Editor
Hannah Oliver
Screenwriter
Evan Ifekoya
Director of Photography
Morgan Spencer
Composer
Eden Alero
Principal cast
Ayebainemi Abieyuwa ése, Eden Alero, Evan Ifekoya
Assistant Director
Gesiye Souza-Okpofabri
Focus Puller
Stephen Ofori
Gaffer
Cat Castro
Spark
Dean Charles
MUA
Blessing Kambanga
Set Designer
Rema Kashay
Production Assistant
Erin O’Garro
Production Assistant
Anna-Maria Tesfaye
Production Assistant
Silva Gordon-Valenzuela
Runner
Emem Usanga
Runner
Nia Fekri
BTS Photographer
Puer Deorum
Sound Engineer
Joel Bartholemew
Additional footage
Evan Ifekoya, Hannah Oliver
Narrator
Evan Ifekoya
Sound Mix and Master
Kiera Coward-Deyell
Recording Studio
Noatune Studios

Production Status

Production Company

Supported by Made of Truth: BFI Doc Society Short Film Fund

Artarche Production

Ese Onojeruo
52 Nash Road
London
SE4 2QJ

Page updates

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