Towards Tenderness, Bodily Functions, & Puk Nini

Part of “An Open Window: Black Women Directors across the Diaspora” curated by Erisa Apantaku and J. Michael Eugenio.

Alice Diop’s Towards Tenderness (2016, 38 min.) features audio interviews with four young men about sex and masculinity overlaid with images of their daily lives. Three narratives exploring sexual expression and body image interweave in queer filmmaker Jocelyn Taylor’s Bodily Functions (1995, 14 min.). Puk Nini (1996, 30 min.) by Fanta Régina Nacro—the first Burkinabè woman to direct a feature film—highlights women’s independence and solidarity, showing adultery from men and women’s viewpoints.