Under the Sky of Fetishes by Caroline Déodat and SUNKEN Works/Don’t Bite by Galiah Conroy and CJ Roxas
By Mahlet Cuff
On 13 February 2026, the Early Caribbean Society hosted an online screening of two films titled Under the Sky of Fetishes by Caroline Déodat and SUNKEN Works/Don’t Bite by Galiah Conroy and C.J. Roxas.
The film Under the Sky of Fetishes looks at the colonial history of archives and as a way to counter the archive of the Mauritian sega, the image of the culture projected onto a cloth is burned. To reclaim autonomy to one’s own history is complex but necessary. Especially for enslaved and colonized people to say no to what was once was never an option for them. The burning of the image allowed for the colonial narrative to be flipped and told from the oppressed people’s perspective. A perspective that is oftentimes hidden and or erased. Although it may be hard to see, the film does a beautiful job of reminding the viewer that the haunting of the past very much informs the present and future.
The film SUNKEN Works/Don’t Bite is an experimental dance video work that draws from the history of human zoos that took place across Europe in the 20th century. The use of archival imagery to emphasize the pain of being paraded around and watched was effective. As the repetition of these images allowed for the viewer to sit in the discomfort of the exotification that this woman is being subjected to. Remnants of Josephine Baker’s influence is present during the film making me ask—although Baker did not dance for human zoos officially—when Black women perform for majority white audiences, where is the line between appreciation and exotification of their bodies and movement?
Both films grapple with desirability, reclamation, appropriation, and anger. I had not seen these films prior to the screening and I am happy to know and to return to them in the future. The talkback after was enriching and has made me sit with how experimental films, videos and moving images can be a way to understand oneself and community when there is a history of violent colonization that is ongoing.
