This project is a collaboration between a young filmmaker (Akosua Ampofo, camera and editing), a lecturer in film and a PhD student in African studies (Aseye Tamakloe, Director) and myself as Producer and Executive Director.  As African women we are interested in gender relations among people of the African continent and the diaspora, particularly the significance of the intersections of race and gender in the “making” of black masculinities.  

Changing socio-historical contexts notwithstanding, and decades after feminist scholars first applied the lens of patriarchy to examine constructions and performances of masculinity to explain gender inequalities, many narratives about young black man have remained static and devoid of nuances.  They are still vilified as sexual or otherwise violent predators; lazy n’er-do-wells; political mobsters or gangsters; or bearers of disease (eg. HIV). Alternatively, the black male is frequently the object of racial fetishism—presented as a super stud. Where different scenarios are presented, such as of the caring, stay-at-home father, or the sensitive son, they often come across as stories of the exceptional man.