Silence... Broken

Directed by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

Silence...Broken is an experimental narrative short about an African American lesbian's refusal to be silent about racism, sexism and homophobia. Featuring the poetry of acclaimed poet Jourdan Keith, this video is dedicated to the memory of self-defined Black Lesbian Feminist Warrior Mother Poet Audre Lorde who died in 1992 after a fourteen-year battle with breast cancer. This experimental short was created out of the filmmaker's personal need to see on screen the internal and external struggle Black lesbians go through when they constantly fight against choosing between their race, their gender and their sexuality in a racist, sexist and homophobic society. Silence...Broken is strongly influenced by award-winning filmmaker Marlon Riggs' masterpiece Tongues Untied about Black gay men.