Here, Already

Screening and Discussion

Join us at e-flux Screening Room on Tuesday, November 10, at 7pm for "Here, Already", a screening of films by Salad Hilowle , Ahmed Umar , Samira Elagoz , and Z Walsh , guest-curated by Power Ekroth . The screening will be followed by a discussion between Ekroth, Elagoz, and Walsh.

Love takes different forms here, from desire hidden in plain sight to intimacy across continents, and music plays a rather different, but equally important, role in each of the three films. In Salad Hilowle's Passion of Remembrance , 1990s Swedish pop and television reveal the contradiction of being celebrated for contributions to popular culture while still being treated as outsiders because of xenophobia.

In Ahmed Umar's film Truth Bears No Scandal (ِالـواضِح مو فـاضِح) , queer desire, camouflaged within familiar Sudanese songs, is brought to the fore. In Samira Elagoz and Z Walsh's You Can't Get What You Want but You Can Get Me , music carries the excitement and longing of a love story unfolding across continents, with all the obstacles that distance brings.

Moving from the public to the coded to the intimate, the works extend their antennae toward the society around them, reflecting on how the personal is political and how taking love and respect as guiding principles in life may be radical in its simplicity.

Films

Salad Hilowle, Passion of Remembrance (2020, 26 minutes) In a collage of archival footage and newly filmed material, Salad Hilowle moves through representations of Black people in Swedish television and popular culture, particularly from the 1990s. Music videos, interviews and news reports feature artists such as Dr. Alban and Leila K, whose contributions to Swedish popular culture were celebrated while they were still treated as outsiders. Rapid editing contrasts with slower, more intimate sequences shot on 16mm and 35mm film, in which Black men and women occupy landscapes traditionally associated with Swedish identity. These scenes offer an alternative to the representations found in the archival material. The film takes its title from Maureen Blackwood and Isaac Julien's The Passion of Remembrance .

Ahmed Umar, Truth Bears No Scandal ( الـواضِح مو فـاضِح )‎(2024, 12 minutes)

In Truth Bears No Scandal (ِالـواضِح مو فـاضِح), Ahmed Umar revisits three well-known Sudanese songs with hidden queer love stories: songs written by men for their male lovers, and women for their female lovers. With little written documentation of Sudan's musical heritage, particularly its queer histories, Umar's research draws on oral testimonies collected from Sudanese sources in Cairo and online.

From 19 songs believed to carry such stories, he selected three representing different musical genres. Rich in metaphor, religious references and expressions of love and longing, the songs have remained open to multiple interpretations, allowing their queer meanings to go largely unnoticed. Umar brings these stories to the fore, embracing them as an…