Shirley Bruno

An Excavation of Us (Le Déterrement de Nous) (2017) and Tezen (2016).

An Excavation of Us (Le Déterrement de Nous) (Haiti, France and Belgium / 2017 / 11 mins )

The shadows of Napoleon's army fall upon a boat traveling through the mysterious cave named after her legend Marie Jeanne, a female soldier who fought in the Haitian Revolution. It is this battle inside her cave that will become the most successful slave revolution in history. 

Tezen (Haiti and France / 2016 / 26 mins) A restless daughter meets a spirit who gives her pure water. Her family devours the delicious water until they begin to suspect more than the origin of its taste. A traditional folktale retold entirely featuring a cast of nonactors from one family made of three generations. 

Preceded by Scribe Produced Films:

Finding My Way Home (2021, 13 mins) by Tatiana Bacchus. A Haitian-American woman wrestles with feelings of loss and disconnection brought on by her complete assimilation into American culture. Through a journey of family photos and cooking lessons with her mom, she tries to find the pathway back to Haiti - even though she has never been there and doesn't speak the language.

Land Where I Rize (2021, 9 mins) by Dasha “DaSaint” Saintremy   A first-generation child born to Haitian immigrants—in this film, Da Saint poetically reflects on language, culture and tradition; what is lost, found and what is preserved for the sake of self-preservation

Shirley Bruno's video and film work draw from her Haitian heritage preserving and radicalizing her ancestral traditions and mythology. She (re)creates modern myths that expose the slippery line between the material and spiritual world, documentary and fiction, collective memory and so-called official histories. Shirley is a graduate of London Film School and Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains. Funding and prizes for her work include Sundance Institute, Creative Capital Award, and the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, NYSCA, NYFA.

This Producer's Forum will be followed by a Special Learning Session led by Shirley Bruno- Creating Films About Unwritten Histories.

Join filmmaker Shirley Bruno as she shares her art and craft of creating films that breathe visual life into unwritten histories and collective memory.​