From the team that recently won the fourth annual Outdoor Adventure Film Grant – “Oregon’s Outdoors Are For Everyone” (OAFG21) with their winning application, (entitled, “You Go Girl”) is their newly released, “Ash Land.” This short film is part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “O!” original programming – an immersive and interactive digital space where there is something for everyone.
About “Ash Land” – from the filmmakers “we offer a portrait of a Black woman who has turned her back on herself, afflicted by a quiet, insidious malaise. Her once-beloved refuge is now a den for survival, and rituals that were once joyous have become militaristic attempts at de-stressing. Compounded by the pandemic, she can no longer outrun the internal torment. When an enigmatic spirit finally catches up to her, she cultivates an understanding of true restoration and rebirth that reignites her love of Ashland. In this film, our proposal to humanity is simple: We are the ones we have been waiting for. We must heal us. We must cultivate our own joy. We must inhabit spaces in the fullness of our truth. We must love ourselves inclusive of and not in spite of our mortal wounds. We Black. We in Oregon. Look at us.” “Ash Land” was directed by Shariffa Ali, produced by Adrian Alea, produced by Courtney Williams, executive produced by Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter.
