Adebowale

Claire Gordon-Webster

United Kingdom, England / 2023 / Fiction / 11’17”I2501601

Adebowale
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SYNOPSIS

As an average day plays out, Anthony swallows racial microaggression after microaggression until he snaps -disappearing completely. We move with Anthony, a 40-something Black-British jobbing actor, through an ordinary day at home. We watch him wake up, brew coffee, work out, brush his teeth, call his mum, record a self tape audition using his alias ‘Antony Wale’, receive disappointing news from his agent, text with a girl, Facetime with his mate, step out to get groceries. But under the surface of this domesticity, racial microaggressions simmer and sting. Anthony swallows each - again and again and again - until he finds himself crossing the street to get out of the path of a white woman he clocks that he’s made uncomfortable. He returns home -but something has shifted inside of him, a rage ready to burst. The next morning, we’re with Anthony as his routine repeats. Wake up, brew coffee, work out, record a self tape, ‘Antony Wale’... As he watches the recording realisation dawns - he has disappeared. Gone. Invisible. Present in the space, but completely unseen. Thrown into a terrifying formless state, Anthony does the only thing within his control - he whispers his full name to himself, "Anthony Adebowale". Thrown into a terrifying formless state, Anthony does the only thing within his control - he whispers his full name to himself, "Anthony Adebowale". Thrown into a terrifying formless state, Anthony does the only thing within his control - he whispers his full name to himself, "Anthony Adebowale". "Anthony A-d-e-bo-wale" His identity, his history, his personhood. His name becomes a mantra. A way to finding himself. Slowly, painfully he shifts back into the space, back to himself.

GÉNÉRIQUE