(IN)VISIBLE PORTRAITS

This Filmmaker Won’t Let Breonna Taylor Be Forgotten

First-time director Oge Egbuonu speaks to Vanity Fair about both her new documentary, (In)Visible Portraits, focused on the erasure of Black women in America, and the tragedy of Breonna Taylor’s killing.

By Julie Miller

June 10, 2020

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In 1962, Malcolm X proclaimed, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” Filmmaker Oge Egbuonu underscores how true those words still are, even nearly six decades later, in her thought-provoking documentary, (In)Visible Portraits.

The film, which first-time director Egbuonu called “a love letter to Black women,” brings to light the invisible otherizing of African American women in America. It features Black female academics and everywomen looking back on the historical oppression of Black women, honoring the strength and perseverance of generations rendered invisible by society, and reframing the narrative around the population in their own words. As Egbuonu, an associate producer on 2016’s Loving, told Vanity Fair, “This is me saying, ‘I hear you. I see you, and you matter.’”

Egbuonu said that she initially submitted the film to the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals. They both told her they loved the movie, she said, but didn’t know how to categorize it in their festival programming. As protests and outrage continue to grip the nation following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor—and audiences flock to Netflix to understand racism via problematic content like The Help—Egbuonu is self-distributing the documentary.

She’s debuting the trailer on Wednesday, via Vanity Fair, and will premiere the film on Vimeo for purchase on June 19. She hopes that (In)Visible Portraits will help reeducate audiences at this point of cultural upheaval—and also “teach the industry how to market films on Black women and show it that these films are important and they do, quote, unquote, sell.”

Egbuonu said she had no idea three years ago, when she began her documentary, that (In)Visible Portraits would “be so relevant or just so on the nose of what we’re experiencing right now.” Egbuonu has been thinking “constantly” about the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American medical worker in Louisville, Kentucky, who was killed by police executing a search warrant.

“I think her case plays into what the film is about, which has been this erasure of Black women, whether it’s in society or white supremacy or in comparison to Black men,” said the filmmaker. “It’s quite perplexing, in a way, to see how there’s so much rage around George Floyd, as there should be, all the rage that happened with Ahmaud Arbery, as it should be. Then Breonna Taylor, it was so much rage for a few days…and then she was kind of forgotten.

“Whether it’s because there was video or not, her death still happened, and it plays into this narrative of the erasure of Black women that is so unfortunate because her life mattered, her life meant something,” added the filmmaker. “Even with this documentary, we personally have vowed to make sure that her name isn’t forgotten, that her case isn’t forgotten, to use every platform I can to elevate her voice, elevate her case, elevate the call that these officers are arrested.”

Even during production, Egbuonu said she wasn’t sure whether audiences were ready to reframe their understanding of Black women. “But I feel, because of the collective space of self-reflection that we’re in now, people are so open and ready for this reeducation of what we’ve been taught. I feel competent in what I’ve made because I think people are ready to receive it.”

The film will be released digitally for Vimeo purchase on June 19 before a wider digital release on iTunes, Amazon, and Roku the following month.

Julie Miller

Hollywood Correspondent