"Occupy the space that allows you to breathe freely..."
Delighted to feature the new trailer and to announce that Acts 1 & 2 of my masters student film Witch Finder Phenomenal has been selected to be part of this years Queer Fringe! Film Festival which has an amazing section of films running between 9-14 Nov!
My creative autoethnographic film will be part of the 'Horror Shorts: Here Comes the Ghouls' section. It will be showing 4.30pm - 6pm on Sunday Nov 14th alongside an array of other marvel queer horror shorts. (Witch Finder Phenomenal is PG 13 rated with parental guidance, however some of the other films in the horror sections are rated 18.)
Witch Finder Phenomenal Witch Finder Phenomenal is a hauntological creative autoethnographic film set in the early 1980s and is based on my experiences growing up as a mixed-race queer girl in Harlesden.
A troubled 12 year old Aurora Mojo (Maisy Stewart- Holland) encounters witches, mermaids and wolves as she tries to free herself from the evil white privileged hell witch Bealzebette (Ella Stewart Holland), and the witch-finding spectres of gender, racism, abuse and dissociation. Witch Finder Phenomenal is a hauntological creative autoethnographic film set in the early 1980s and is based on my experiences growing up as a mixed-race queer girl in Harlesden. A troubled 12 year old Aurora Mojo (Maisy Stewart- Holland) encounters witches, mermaids and wolves as she tries to free herself from the evil white privileged hell witch Bealzebette (Ella Stewart Holland), and the witch-finding spectres of gender, racism, abuse and dissociation.
Filmed & Directed by Maria Rosamojo in a small living room in Brighton, and via zoom, during the Covid 19, Lockdown and the George Floyd BLM Protests in the summer of 2020, she also appears as The Witch Finder Phenomenal, The Fairy Horse Mother, Yemaya The Caribbean Mermaid, Anne Boleyn, Frida Kahlo & Billy Holliday.
Playing from Witch Finder Phenomenal at the Queer Fringe! Film Festival are Act 1: Mare & Act 2: Skulduggery. Acts 3: Dragon Heart 4: I am The Bull and 5: For My sins will be completed and available via my website AFTER I am able to replace my ropy old macbook!
As an Outsider Artist with mental and physical health challenges, zero budget and a ropy old macbook with little storage, I was still ironically enabled to occupy the space that allowed me to breathe freely through the creative exposition of making of the film. As I channeled my ancestors and communed with spectres in an attempt to find meaning in trauma, my creativity empowered my autonomy. I was asked to speak about this for the RAI film fest in March 2021 https://www.harlesdencuckoo.com/post/my-queer-mixed-race-hauntology-the-rai-film-festival-conference-live-q-a-12pm-20th-march-2021 , and I have also documented my embodied and spiritual experiences for an online journal on BLM which will be out soon darkmatter http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/about/(a peer-reviewed, open-access online journal committed to producing contemporary de/post-colonial critique).
I was daunted to part of a 'professional' film program, but I'm so proud of being asked to be part of The Queer Fringe! Film & Arts Fest and to have received such wonderful and validating feedback from some of its programmers who have shared with me their appreciation and how my story has affected them. One of my favourites was "We've never seen anything like it!". Well, I think it was a compliment! ;)))
Book tickets for The Horror Shorts: Here Comes The Ghouls section below on the Queer Fringe Festival page and visit this link to browse their whole programme
(NB: Witch Finder Phenomenal is PG 13 rated with parental guidance, however some of the other films in the horror sections is rated 18 so I'm afraid any one under this age will only be able to see my film only with parental consent. Contact me for details)
Book Below!
