DEFERENCE
A film by Fanta Kouyaté
SYNOPSIS
In the 1860s, Black codes legally required Black people to step off the sidewalk for white people. Those laws are gone. This film asks why the choreography never left the body. A Black woman walks down a busy street and does not step aside.
THE WORK
The sidewalk is not neutral ground. To step aside is to enact a social position. To hold your line is to refuse one. The camera follows her from behind, catches her from the side, finds her face. Real street, real people, no staging.
STATUS
Shot April 5th, 2026 in Kreuzberg, Berlin. Currently in the edit.
FILMMAKER
Fanta Kouyaté is a writer-director. She is also the subject of the film.
TRANSMOGRIFYING TRAGEDY
A film by Fanta Kouyate
SYNOPSIS
This is not a love story. It’s an exorcism.
Fanta falls for Anima, a boy who matches her in every way that matters. As his addiction pulls him under, something from his childhood he’s never let himself remember starts to surface, and Fanta realizes she can’t save him, only watch. After he’s gone, she has to go back for the version of herself she left behind a long time ago.
THE WORK
The film moves between what actually happened and a white room where the buried thing finally becomes visible. No recovery. No redemption. Just the truth arriving too late to change anything.
WHY NOW
The film sits with a question a lot of families would rather not answer: what happens after everyone already knew, and said nothing.
STATUS
In development.
FILMMAKER
Fanta Kouyate is a writer-director, daughter of a Malian griot.