PALIMPSEST: TALES SPUN FROM SEA AND MEMORIES

Short Film, 18 min

Written & Directed by Billy Gerard Frank

Edited by Yana Biryukova

Premiering at The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in the Grenada National Pavilion By Billy Gerard Frank - Palimpsest: Tales Spun From Sea And Memories, explore fragments of Ottobah Cugoano’s life, who was a major figure in the abolitionist movement in England towards the end of the18th century, whose life ended in obscurity. He was kidnapped in Ghana, and brought to Grenada as a slave before he was bought to England as the personal servant of Alexander Cambell, a Scottish Plantain owner in Grenada. His book Thoughts And Sentiments On The Evils of Slavery... played a seminal role in the abolitionist movement and he was one of the first Afro-Briton to have written a book in English, while employed as a servant for the Royalist Artist, Richard Cosway, introduced to all the pageantries, of class, race, and power in 18th Century England.