Sophia Nahli Allison

Filmmaker and Visual Artist, US

Sophia Nahli Allison is an experimental documentary filmmaker, photographer + dreamer. She disrupts conventional documentary methods by reimagining the archives and excavating hidden truths. She conjures ancestral memories to explore the intersection of fiction and non-fiction storytelling. She was a 2018 Sundance Institute New Frontier Lab Programs Fellow and her work has been recognized by Glassbreaker Films, Getty, the Chicago 3Arts Awards, The White House News Photographers Association, and more. In 2018 she was an Artist-in-Residence at The Center for Photography at Woodstock. She received her Master’s in Visual Communication and her Bachelor’s in Photojournalism.

To learn more: www.sophianahliallison.com

Dreaming Gave Us Wings

Dreaming Gave Us Wings recontextualizes the myth of flying Africans as a factual historical occurrence. In this self portrait series the body experiences a physical conjuring of flight to remove self and black women from an oppressive world and find peace in the psychic space. Synonymous with liberation, levitation is a mode of transportation between time and space. Dreaming activates hidden archives where stories occupy the physical and spiritual realm. Inspired by the importance of afrodiasporic flight within folklore and history, these images house a deep remembrance of survival and freedom.

Sophia Nail Allison was in residence at Camargo from February 25 to March 25, 2019, in partnership with 3Arts.