My Words Become Butterflies addresses the conflict with languages within a childhood that was spent between Haiti and Jamaica, two post-colonial cultures divided by two very separate languages and traditions. This work speaks directly to the relationship between language and memory. It also addresses issues of geographical culture displacement, and the perception of Western standardized ideas of beauty accepted in Diaspora communities.
My Words Become Butterflies a painterly multi-disciplinary non-linear narrative film addressing the complexities of memory and place, body language, the spoken language and shifting global political realities of race identities. In my film, I embody two satirical fictional personas, Queen Nappy and YoYo Yolanda, who perform in French, Haitian Creole and English on the physical descriptions of Hottentot Venus; to the sexual interpretations of Josephine Baker; to the modern-day Jezebels and Sapphires portrayal in the media.
The performances are interweaved with spoken text from historical sources, where each character gives monologue on their interpretation of beauty. As the film interchange between characters, their spoken words begin to merge slowly into an artificial language of musical sounds from musical alphabets invented by the artist; subtitles will appear at the bottom of the film to translate the spoken sounds.