Genre
Synopsis
AFROMYSTIC is a groundbreaking, lyrical documentary that follows LGBTQ+ Yorùbá practitioners across Nigeria, Brazil, and the U.S. in their quest for post-colonial liberation through indigenous religion. Directed by Seyi Adebanjo, the film centers on four protagonists: Afro-Puerto Rican artist Tenjin Falase Ikeda, lesbian priestess Sojourner McCauley, transgender Candomblé priestess Iya Thiffany, and Seyi, a gender-nonconforming Nigerian. Through a blend of interviews, ritual footage, and animation. AFROMYTSIC affirms the historical existence of LGBTQ+ people, and Yorùbá stories such as deities that change gender or are born from same-sex couples. Too often, LGBTQ+ stories are told in opposition to the Judeo-Christian religious community, with religion being a site of pain. AFROMYSTIC flips this script, featuring healthy, vibrant practitioners who have overcome obstacles on their journey to becoming leaders in their spiritual communities. Afromystic bridges spirituality and social justice.
Bio
Seyi Adebanjo, MFA, is a Queer Gender-Non-Conforming Nigerian artist who raises awareness around social issues through video. Seyi’s work exists at the intersection of art, imagination, ritual, and politics. Seyi is a 2024 Sundance Documentary Film Fund Awardee, a 2023 Sundance Institute Trans Possibilities Intensive Fellow and serves on the faculty of New York University. Seyi has received a Fatales Forward: Trans Stories Fellowship, an NYSCA Individual Artist Grant , and residency with The Laundromat Project. Seyi is a 2022 Semi-Finalist for the Sundance Humanities Sustainability Fellowship. Seyi’s award winning documentaries “Justice for Islan Nettles” has screened on PBS Channel 13, and “Ọya: Something Happened On The Way To West Africa continues to screen globally.
Seyi’s latest project is AFROMYSTIC a lyrical documentary guided by four LGBTQ Yorùbá practitioners across the waters of Nigeria, the US, and Brazil reclaiming lost mythologies such as deities who change gender and are born from the love of two womxn. AFROMYSTIC weaves animated Queer & Trans Òrìṣà mythology, poetry, theater and ritual to celebrate the lives of these leaders. Seyi’s work exists at the intersection of art, imagination, ritual and politics.
Awards History
NYSCA - Individual Artist Grant
Fatales Forward 2023 - Trans Stories Fellowship
Sundance Institute 2024- Documentary Film Program
Trans Justice Funding Project 2024
Sundance Institute 2023- Trans Possibilities Intensive
Credits
Producer - Lilly Wachowski
Director of Photography - Antonia Colodro
Producer- Bryan E. Glover
Producer - Nala Simone Toussaint
Co-Producer - Felix Endara
