This new short film embodies the guardian spirit of West Africa

“Often, we get to look at The Masquerades, but we don’t see what they see,” says Sierra Leonean artist, poet and filmmaker Julianknxx, who has taken viewers inside the mask of the African folkloric spirit in …?M, a new short film commissioned by 180 Studios in partnership with Ray-Ban Meta. “I was drawn to the Moko Jumbie, the stilt-walking spirit found in Caribbean carnival culture. According to folklore, these spirits travelled from West Africa, walking across the Atlantic into the Caribbean, following those who were forced to migrate to watch over and protect them in this new land.”

Given the history of the Moko Jumbie, south London’s Market Row in Brixton Village was a natural setting for the 60-second film, an area which became the first home for many African and Caribbean migrants to the UK in the 20th century. Switching between third and first-person shots captured on Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses of the towering Moko Jumbie spirit navigating the sheltered market area, the video also features cuts of archival footage from the area. 

“I wanted to create a longer view of Brixton, so layering found footage helped stretch its presence through time,” Julianknxx explains of his commitment to spotlighting Afro-Caribbean existence in the neighbourhood. “I think just showing today flattens that sense of time for me. By bringing in the archive, I wanted to hold the past and present together and show how Brixton continues to carry traces of what came before.”

In keeping with this longer view of history, the film opens with a quote from legendary Nigerian poet and Things Fall Apart author Chinua Achebe, who states that The Masquerade reminds viewers of their own place in time. “The colonial project ruptured cultural continuity,” says Julianknxx. “Achebe speaks of using the past as a resource for the present and the future, and the masquerade returns as a symbol of continuity-in-change. He also speaks of the idea that The Masquerade is motion – all kinds of motion – and that reflects the world that is in a continuous state of flux, and we, as inhabitants, must learn to adapt, to change, and to move with it.”

Catch Julianknxx’s full short film, ...?M, at Paradigm Shift, a new exhibition hosted at 180 Studios in partnership with Ray-Ban Meta Glasses.