We Come In Peace, They Said

Cause of Death (2020, 20 min)
When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Black Man (2017, 10 min)
Loving in Between (2023, 18 min)

Jyoti Mistry’s archival trilogy on race, gender, and sexuality deals with the racialization of Black masculinity and racist violence, intersectional sexism and femicide, queer sexuality and love. The footage is drawn from colonial archives, travelogues, and amateur films to create poetic visual forms that comment on historical and contemporary violence and our political consciousness. By layering animation with the archival footage, the works produce visceral experiences that invite dialogue. Language that disempowers and marginalizes one group over another exposes the social and political structures that continue to oppress groups of people. (John Canciani)

Cause of Death (2020, 20 min)
Women’s bodies are always at risk. An autopsy report describes the physical impact on the body that results in death, but it hides the structural and recurrent violence on women’s bodies that leads to femicide. Through archival footage, animation, and spoken word poetry, the film exposes the experience of structural violence against women. MORE

When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Black Man (2017, 10 min)
A Black man is running through a field. A Black man is running on the beach. A Black man is running through a city. The Black man is always running, he is always chased, he keeps running… Running to save his life. A Black man is running towards freedom. MORE

Loving in Between (2023, 18 min)
Between birth and death is the power to love and live. Political rules, religious orders, social norms, and cultural taboos control who we love and how we love. The right to love is controlled and regulated by how we live. But the erotic has the power to emancipate. With spoken word and archival footage, love is unboxed from categories in queer expression and a celebration of eros as the power to change our attitudes to life and to allow others to live their lives without judgment or prejudice. MORE