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Short film
Poster for Triptych

Triptych

2021 · 10 min

A short, somber video essay that lingers on faces and music, asking you to sit with grief and history rather than follow a story.

Directed by
John Akomfrah
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Overview
Triptych (2020) is a homage to the the radical, political album, ‘We Insist!’ (1960) by the jazz musician Max Roach – the ideas of which prefigured the themes that became the Civil Rights and anti-apartheid movements. The catalyst for this film was the broadcasted portraits of figures such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the evident incongruity between the beguiling ordinariness of the images that represented them with the violent end we know they endured. Through a rare focus on portraiture, Akomfrah seeks to express the diversity of Black characters, characteristics and characterisations that should form the bedrock of any de-colonial or anti-racist future.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
Directed by
John Akomfrah
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
    Pacing
    slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
    Attention
    demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
    Themes
    • race
    • justice
    • identity
    • death
    • art
    Places
    None
    Era
    contemporary
    Audience
    adult
    Form
    • documentary
    Content intensity
    • Gore none
    • Language none
    • Violence mild
    • Sex none
    All scales, 0 to 10
    Scales, 0 to 10
    ScaleValue0 to 10
    Action0
    Horror2
    Humour0
    Realism8
    Romance0
    Tension4
    Darkness6
    Complexity7
    Emotional weight8

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    Where to watch in the UK

    No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

    Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

    Details

    Genres
    drama, mystery, thriller
    Directed by
    John Akomfrah
    Runtime
    10 min
    Country
    Mexico

    TMDB