This August, a group of queer and trans women and non-binary people of color aged 25 to 35 will set out on a week-long healing retreat in the woods of Pennsylvania at a historic site of the Underground Railroad. Healing is just one of the trip’s purposes, though: the retreat is also part a new Afro-Surrealist documentary called "Wild Darlings Sing The Blues, And It’s A Song of Freedom," from the mind of filmmaker Nova Scott-James.
For the 25-year-old, who was born and based in Harlem, it’s high time the world sees images of women of color in nature in empowering ways. To that end, she and her fellow wild darlings will document their experiences as they create a healing sanctuary to process grief and pain rooted in their experiences of racism, rape, colorism, and other issues linked to patriarchy and colonialism. A multigenerational groups of facilitators will be on site to guide them through different types of somatic and spiritual healing work. They’ll each have a camera to film one another throughout the week, and — inspired by the stories, emotions, and memories that come to light — they’ll write and re-enact scenarios for video art pieces to be filmed by an all women-of-color crew.
"May all curses upon our lineages be broken, now," Scott-James recites in a teaser for the film. "May we remember the pain so that we also remember what came before the pain: love." Together, she says, they will rewrite the record.
With just over a week until their August 14th departure, the team is hard at work raising the necessary funds to get them to the woods. Scott-James took a few moments to sit down with Shondaland.com at her mentor’s home in Harlem to talk about the stories behind the film and what she hopes viewers take with them.
Shondaland.com: Tell us about yourself.
Nova Scott-James: My name is Nova. That is a name that I’ve chosen myself. It feels like an important piece of my story. I chose the name initially as a senior at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. It came out of this space of learning about liberation movements and black feminist theory. I was studying film and a lot of work that came out of the intersection of filmmaking and social justice and sociology. Out of that space I had a personal awakening.Since then, I’ve really grown into that name. In Latin, Nova means "new." And so that idea of looking at what it means for something to be new manifests in my self-expression as a creative energy. We’re always creating, and that’s what makes being alive this constant newness. Anyone that I can make an impact [on by] being fully self-expressed, creatively and spiritually, that is my mission. My name speaks to my mission.
SL: How has growing up in Harlem influenced your work?
NSJ: I’m so inspired just walking down the street and moving through different spaces. There’s an aliveness that’s really unique. For me, somehow the spirit of Africa is alive in Harlem. That’s my relationship to it. There’s something really sacred and special about that.
SL: What kind of films did you make before "Wild Darlings"?
NSJ: When I was a junior in college I studied abroad in Botswana. Being there was so transformative. There was a woman on my study abroad exchange trip who also went to my college. We met and we fell madly in love. She was working an apprenticeship at this women’s pottery collective in the village of Tamaha. I was working at a production company in the capital, Gaborone, and I pretty much begged them to let me take a camera there. I ended up making a short film, a straightforward documentary, about the women’s pottery collective.
Then my senior year I made two surrealist shorts that were avant-garde, loose narratives. What I’m doing now is a combination of both of those. I don’t think one just jumps to, "Oh, I’m going to make this surrealist, avant-garde documentary." For me it came out of exploring each of those separately.
One of the pieces I made in college is called "The Hopeless Dream of Being." The title is based on this Ingmar Bergman film, "Persona," where there’s this whole monologue where Bibi Andersson’s character, Alma, talks about "the hopeless dream of being." It’s words, but there’s really like a whole world in those words. And there was also something about the queerness of "Persona." I had just gotten back from Botswana; I’m dating this woman, and we’re so in love. It was such a beautiful time and experience. It was a really healing relationship for me. That was the first time I really realized I was queer. I was processing that, too. That film was part of me processing that.
And then after that I made this short called "Astro liberation." It’s about these two black college students that go to an all-white party where all of the kids are dancing to trap music. These two black kids feel really alienated and sad. They go upstairs and they summon this spirit that’s their ancestor and she guides them through this whole psychedelic journey.
SL: What kind of work have you been doing since college?
NSJ: I graduated in 2014. For like a year and a half I worked doing freelance camera operating, filming events, working on small crews in corporate settings, on TV shows, in the camera department. I learned a lot from all of that. I was definitely always in really white spaces, always surrounded by white men. They were beautiful humans and people that I formed friendships with, but it was a challenge. When you’re in a workplace but also feeling so other-ized and just looking around and saying, "Why is there no one that looks like me, even remotely?", [it] can be really challenging. Even some people I’ve worked with that I appreciate and respect, I don’t see them making an effort to hire other people of color.
I’m not interested in shaming people for that not happening. I am interested in starting conversations about that needing to happen. As I’m saying this now, I’m thinking, "Hmm, I should really talk to some industry folks that I know." I should ask them, "What are you doing to diversify the industry? What actions are you taking?" I don’t think it’s for lack of caring, but sometimes if it’s not brought to someone’s attention, maybe they don’t know. It also takes being uncomfortable for a brief moment, like at the start of a conversation.
Uncomfortable conversations are a blessing. It might feel funky for a second, but ultimately you transcend that, and you get to a space of aliveness and connection and really creating something with someone else, and creating new possibilities and new visions for the future. To start the visioning you have to get through what’s not working.
SL: At what point did the idea for "Wild Darlings" come to you?
NSJ: In fall 2017 a lot of things happened. I was reflecting on my own healing journey, and just how far I’ve come, and really releasing trauma through different spiritual work and embodiment work.. I was looking at how nature has been such a big part of my healing journey and connecting with the earth in a very deep and sacred way. A friend of mine was traveling across the country with her girlfriend, camping out and hiking. She posted this picture of her on a mountain top and she’s wearing these short shorts. And she’s thick, and you can tell that she’s thick wearing these shorts. And the caption said, "Yes, these thighs do clap when I hike." And I was just like, "Yes, that is brilliant and beautiful and so inspiring." And in the same moment I was equally inspired by that and also really [conscious of] the fact that we don’t get to see women of color in nature in empowering ways. It’s very rare.
SL: What’s the story behind the title?
NSJ: The title is inspired by this classic American blues song, "Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues," that was first sung by Ida Cox in the 20s. When the title surfaced it was like the whole project came with it. Even though I didn’t know all the details, I did. Somewhere underneath the iceberg it was all there.
I wanted to gather women of color in the woods and just celebrate one another and do healing work and play and mourn. So I started calling women of color that I’m really inspired by, and I just started having these beautiful conversations with them. Something that came out of our conversations was [finding out] that some of these people don’t identify as women; they identify as gender-nonconforming or non-binary. Out of my ignorance, I [had] assumed [they] identified as women.That was a really important moment for me in terms of being aware of the importance of intersectionality and how to put it into action in an effective and inclusive and empowering way. There was this piece missing that I wasn’t initially thinking of due to my privilege as a cis woman. And so it went from "Wild Women" to "Wild Darlings." We were looking at, how can we as a group represent ourselves in a unified and empowering way that prioritizes intersectionality? So the title shifted and the whole project shifted with it.
SL: Are you yourself in the film?
NSJ: Yeah. It’s very much a movie about community and making a movie. The whole crew will be in the movie. It’s about the community that’s being built, and we’re all a part of that. It’ll look at how communities take shape and what’s possible when we work in community.
SL: What do you hope folks will take away from the film?
NSJ: We all have trauma to varying degrees. It’s my hope and my intention that people watch this film and come away seeing access to approaching their pain and trauma with love and community and creativity. I want people to see direct tools and resources that they can use to process their pain. And that, yes, it is difficult, [but] it can also be full of connection and love and community. With the right tools we can really process the trauma and move through it. On the other side of moving through that space, there’s so much liberation and love that’s possible.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Alyssa Klein is a film journalist living in New York City. She is previously the Social Media Director of Women’s March and Senior Editor at OkayAfrica.