Do you know the story of Gaspar Nyanga, also called Yanga, or Nyanga, which occurred around Veracruz in the late 1500s and early 1600s? This Black History Month you can watch Afro-Mexican director Medhin Tewolde Serrano’s NYANGA for free all throughout February at VLAFFs Vimeo Channel.

Originally from Gabon, Africa, Nyanga was kidnapped on the African coast and put on a boat, along with many others of his people. He was sold as a slave in New Spain and worked on plantations near Veracruz. But Nyanga never forgot freedom. He revolted against captors and masters, and established a community of Afro-descendant men and women, who faced the conditions of slavery and meekness that existed in the Viceroyalty.

After an important exercise of introspection in her debut film NEGRA (which screened at VLAFF in 2020), Medhin Tewolde Serrano makes Nyanga’s story is her own and from a poetic interpretation, more loaded with symbols than information, but also alluding to the character’s power of rebellion, she creates a beautiful short film in which she makes a nod to animation: a technique of silhouettes and shadows. The animation studio Chipotle Teatro also collaborated as artistic directors and animators.

We hope you enjoy NYANGA as part of Black History Month!

VLAFF would like to thank the director Medhin Tewolde Serrano and the IMCINE (Mexican Film Institute) for making this presentation possible.

Medhin Tewolde Serrano is Eritrean-Mexican and lives in Chiapas. Upon completing her studies in documentary filmmaking, she became concerned with telling the stories of others. Since then, she has dedicated herself to accompanying participatory video and community communication processes in Spain, Tunisia, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. In accompanying these processes, her own process of identity construction as a woman of African descent was revealed to her. This led her to direct her first feature-length documentary: ‘Negra’. During this process, she learned of the story of Gaspar Yanga, an Afro-Mexican hero who, unfortunately, is little known. For this reason, she decided to create an animated short film inspired by his biography and entitled ‘Nyanga’. It is an homage to marroonage yesterday and today.