Kumina Queen

  Directed by: Nyasha Laing Released: 2024 (educational) Year of Production: 2023 Running Time: 57 min Language: English, Spanish and Portuguese Subtitle Options: English Closed Captions Subjects:  Caribbean Studies, Race Power and Privilege, Women's Studies                          Imogene “Queenie” Kennedy was a contemporary priestess in post-colonial Jamaica who catapulted her African spiritual practice into renown. But after centuries of erasure, what remains of the dance between the living and the dead? In the wake of the loss of her mother, the filmmaker travels into the heart of Jamaican countryside to research Kumina, an ancestral ritual. The ancient practice, she learns, is a driving force in Jamaica’s culture and identity, yet its leaders have historically been discarded as witches and criminalized. Jamaica’s post-colonial renaissance enabled Queenie to share her practice with the world. Today, Queenie’s mysterious world reveals a divergent pathway to freedom