Medhin Tewolde Serrano
Medhin Tewolde Serrano is an Eritrean-Mexican filmmaker based in Chiapas. After training in documentary filmmaking, she began telling other people's stories, focusing in particular on participatory video and community media experiences in Spain, Tunisia, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. Supporting these projects led her to explore her own identity-building process as a woman of African descent, which inspired her to direct her first feature-length documentary, Negra (2020). During this journey, she discovered the story of Gaspar Yanga, an Afro-Mexican hero who remains largely unknown. This discovery led her to create the animated short Nyanga (2023), a tribute to historical and contemporary resistance through marronage.
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Negra
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Filmmaker Medhin Tewolde Serrano was around seven years old when, for the first time, someone shouted “negra” at her in the street. That day, she realized she was Black — and the laughter around her quickly made it clear that this probably wasn’t a good thing… Through the stories of five women of African descent living in Mexico, _Negra_ explores what it means to inhabit the body of a Black wom...
Nyanga
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During the colonial era, Gaspar Yanga was kidnapped from the African coast, brought to Mexico, and enslaved. Though forced to work on the master's plantation, he never stopped dreaming of freedom. Based on historical facts and using shadow theatre with hand-drawn animation, _Nyanga_ pays tribute to the resistance against the chains of colonialism.
Negra
Subscription access
Filmmaker Medhin Tewolde Serrano was around seven years old when, for the first time, someone shouted “negra” at her in the street. That day, she realized she was Black — and the laughter around her quickly made it clear that this probably wasn’t a good thing… Through the stories of five women of African descent living in Mexico, _Negra_ explores what it means to inhabit the body of a Black wom...
Nyanga
Subscription access
During the colonial era, Gaspar Yanga was kidnapped from the African coast, brought to Mexico, and enslaved. Though forced to work on the master's plantation, he never stopped dreaming of freedom. Based on historical facts and using shadow theatre with hand-drawn animation, _Nyanga_ pays tribute to the resistance against the chains of colonialism.
