Brown Girl Begins

“What is fe you can’t be un fe you” - Jamaican proverb A post-apocalyptic allegory of a young black woman trapped in a world forced upon her. Ti-Jeanne is a reluctant priestess who must resurrect Caribbean spirits and survive a possession ritual that killed her mother. If she doesn’t fulfill her ritualistic responsibility, her people will die. But she is afraid. Inspired by Nalo Hopkinson’s award winning novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, the fantasy elements of this futuristic tale have their basis in Caribbean folklore. It’s 2049 and Toronto the Good has been taken over by the wealthy, who have built a wall around the city and expelled the poor to an island off the coast, known as The Burn. The segregated Burn dwellers have been forced to scrape out a living by bartering, recycling, and farming. Mami is the unspoken leader of the Burn, sharing her Caribbean herb lore and leading her followers in an ancient spiritual practice. Ti-Jeanne turns 19 and the time has come for her to succeed her grandmother and become a Priestess. When Mami tries to prepare her to take part in the same possession ceremony that killed her mother, Ti-Jeanne refuses. She flees with her young love Tony to the other side of the Burn in hopes of leaving the spirit business behind. Until out of the ashes of The Burn, a drug lord rises to take control of the remaining population and uses his right hand, Crack, to torment the Burn dwellers and prepare them for sale to mainlanders as smart slaves. When Crack begins torturing the children of the Burn, the only hope to save them is for Ti-Jeanne to embrace her priestess powers. Can Ti Jeanne handle the power of the spirits she has been so afraid of and save her people or will her fear kill her? (Pan African Film Festival)