Albina Queens II is a short documentary celebrating the diversity of Black femininity in Northeast Portland. Deliberately moving beyond stories of erasure, Albina Queens II uses interviews with women born and raised in Northeast Portland and vibrant portraits to showcase a thriving, complex, and intergenerational spectrum of Black women. Centering Black women and femmes, this work seeks representation across a wide spectrum of difference — trans women, non-binary femmes, femmes, cis women, youth, elderly, people with a range of abilities — and everything and everyone in between. It is in this span where we find the beauty and power of Black people.
This film is a secondary iteration of the award-winning art-activism photo project, also titled Albina Queens, a project founded by Joy Alise Davis and Portland based organization Imagine Black.This photo project honors those who claim, reclaim and/or disrupt traditional constructs of Black femininity. The video project takes that same commitment and extends it to explore how Black women live, work, play and reclaim Northeast Portland’s legacy as a historically Black neighborhood. The creative team behind the creation and production of this project is entirely Black women and femmes.
This screening is in conjunction with APEX: Sharita Towne & A Black Art Ecology of Portland exhibition.
ALBINA QUEENS
Commissioned by Imagine Black & Black Art Ecology of Portland
Credits:
Executive Producers – Sharita Towne & Joy Alise Davis
Director – Donielle Howard
Producer – Sika Stanton
Producer – Ariella Tai
Director of Photography – Sika Stanton
Edit & Color – Ariella Tai
Additional Cinematography – Kalimah Abioto
Additional Cinematography – Matthew Hayes
Camera Operator – Jasmine Karcey
1st AC – Jerry Turner
Set Fabrication – Anthony DeMarco
Key Grip – Zach Shapiro
Grip – Edgar Salmerón
PA – Chay Montgomery