MORE BLACK SUPERHEROES
Starring: Mazen Alsafi, Andre Meddar JR, Anique Edwards
After seeing the latest superhero blockbuster, Maz, an aspiring artist, questions the modern state of Black representation. Seeing a void, Maz takes it upon himself to create a Black superhero; however, through investigating past tropes and clashing with peer opinions, Maz has to discover what it means to be a “hero” within the Black community.
MORE BLACK SUPERHEROES is a multi-media short film which combines live action and 2D animation. I wanted to use the different media to follow Maz’s story while also transporting the audience into different eras and superhero genre tropes. The Blaxploitation film era (1970s) was a major inspiration and a time period I wanted to focus on specifically as it also questions the nature of “good representation.” The early 70s was a time period when Black filmmakers were able to curate Black films for Black audiences and achieve success.
Animated segment from MORE BLACK SUPERHEROES