Grandmother’s Spirit is a short experimental film directed by Ramzia Jawara. Grandmother’s Spirit observes a woman’s ongoing journey of self discovery as she connects to her lineage through improvisational ritual as a means to spiritual and psychological balance.

Shot in 8mm, Ramzia’s story narrates the use of ancient grains and herbal remedies as the inherited generational gifts that may have allowed her to achieve homeostasis amidst her condition. By working with ancestral grains and butters, Jawara evokes the numerous female ancestors in her lineage as she attempts to expel the putrefaction she has absorbed from her physical environment, while symbolically anointing and protecting her body. Through ritual and reconnection with ancestral wisdom, she embarks on a path of self-healing and discovery.