Nosferasta: First Bite
by Adam Khalil, Bayley Sweitzer, Oba
USA, 2021
synopsis
Christopher Columbus uses his undead powers to create his “New World”, where he sucks the blood out of his colonial project for centuries. Complicit in this is Oba, a shipwrecked African who, once bitten, becomes Columbus’s subject and collaborator. When Oba discovers Rastafarianiam—and ganja—his allegiance changes. In his post-vampiric, present-day existence, Oba struggles with the colonial bureaucracy he helped devise, including his pursuit of US citizenship and literacy.
about the director
Adam Khalil (Co-Director, Co-Writer), a member of the Ojibway tribe, is a filmmaker and artist from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, whose practice attempts to subvert traditional forms of ethnography through humor, relation, and transgression. Khalil is a core contributor to New Red Order and a co-founder of COUSINS Collective. Khalil’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Film Festival, Walker Arts Center, Lincoln Center, Tate Modern, HKW, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Toronto Biennial 2019 and Whitney Biennial 2019, among other institutions. Khalil is the recipient of various fellowships and grants, including but not limited to Sundance Art of Nonfiction, Jerome Artist Fellowship, Cinereach and the Gates Millennium Scholarship.
Bayley Sweitzer (Co-Director, Co-Writer) is a filmmaker living and working in Brooklyn, whose practice revolves around an ongoing attempt to repurpose narrative film form in order to convey radical political possibilities. His work has been shown at Film at Lincoln Center, Walker Art Center, Tate Modern, Berlinale, Anthology Film Archives, Bozar in Brussels, Pacific Film Archive, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Other Cinema in San Francisco, and Artists Space in New York City. Sweitzer has received recent moving image commissions from the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, Gasworks in London, and Spike Island in Bristol. Sweitzer also works professionally as a focus puller and is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600.
Oba (Original Story, Co-Writer, Actor) is a multi-disciplinary artist and chef born in Trinidad. His paintings, sculptures and t-shirts have been featured at Gasworks, London; Spike Island, Bristol UK; Motel Gallery, Brooklyn; and Rumplestiltskin, Brooklyn. He was lead singer of the avant-noise supergroup Dead Companionship from 2016-2018. Oba’s world-class corn soup has been slurped at the legendary Club Temptation in Flatbush, as well as fine establishments, backyards, and basement shows across the world.
