The Dream The Refused Me is split across four aesthetically distinct chapters that ties together myths, attitudes, and rituals from across Africa. Powerful and emotionally stirring, a Xhosa poem narrated by Siyabonga Jim creates draws a narrative line between the ancestral specters and incandescent landscapes.

The story of Africa’s rich cultures and traditions is constantly being retold, remade, and reimagined. The Ethnicify App segment of Newman’s film, which is a satirical take on influencer culture, highlights how cultural nuances can become lost in translation among the diaspora. The question remains: If we, as a new generation of global Africans, are meant to embody the hopes and dreams of our forefathers, would they even recognise that us today?

The Dream That Refused Me does not aim to carry a singular message but to exist as a creative expression; a kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, and prints that for those who have inherited the key through birth, culture or education can unlock the film’s abundance of coded connotations.

NBO Film Festival (2020)
The Aesthetica Short International Film Festival (2021)
40th edition of the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) (2022)
Onassis Stegi 'Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams, and Data’ Exhibtion (2022)