A Contemporary Screen Work Revisits the Négritude Movement

19.09.26 10:47 AM - By EJLinc

Where Are the Reparations scores 24+ Festival Wins 

Since its release on August 1, 2026, Where Are the Reparations has collected more than 24 wins and selections on the film festival circuit — a remarkable run for a spoken word film that asks one uncompromising question: where is the debt owed, and when will it be paid?

More Than a Film — a Movement in Multimedia

The film itself, a 17 minute, 47-second piece shot in black and white and color, arrives from the vision of Dr. Empress Rose G, a 6x Grammy®-considered Spoken Word artist and Billboard producer whose work consistently reaches beyond existing disciplines to build new, empowering connections with a global audience. On the festival circuit, the piece has been embraced precisely as what it is: spoken word, hip-hop, rap, and world genre filmmaking. 


Where Are the Reparations is not a standalone work. It springs from "Négritude: the names they tried to silence......" — a living multimedia project that exists as an album, an ebook, and a paperback. The film, drawn from the track, sits within a spoken word tribute to the voices of Black liberation, channeling 40+ historical giants whose names history tried to quiet.


The momentum is undeniable. The film took home Best Music Video, Producer & Editing credits at theCaravan and MEI International Film Festival 2026 respectively, Best Music Video atthe Spinning Reels Awards,  Best Music Video and Best Short Film at the 7th-RIFF-Roshani International Film Festival,Best Short Film and Soundtrack at the BlockBusted and earned an Official Selection at the 12th International Film Festival of Shimla 2026 in India  — proof that a three- to seventeen minute question delivered with conviction, can travel across borders and languages.                  

Check out the Film

A Contemporary Screen Work Revisits the Négritude Movement

This Fall '26 season, the Négritude film project deepens its reach with a French-subtitled release, paying homage to Léopold Sédar Senghor — poet, co-founder of the Négritude movement, and the first President of Senegal.

The homage is more than symbolic. Négritude was born in 1930s Paris, forged in the French language by Senghor, Aimé Césaire, and Léon-Gontran Damas as a literary and political reclamation of Black identity and pride. To carry this film to francophone audiences, in the language of the movement's birth, is to close a circle nearly a century in the making. The names they tried to silence will now be spoken, subtitled, and heard in French.

Conclusion

The question at the heart of the film has never been more urgent. From festival stages in India to international audiences worldwide, Where Are the Reparations is doing what Négritude has always done: insisting that memory is resistance, and that art can carry a demand further than any podium.

24+ wins in under two months is not just a milestone — it's a signal. The world is listening.

Stream the film. Experience the album. Read the book. "Négritude: the names they tried to silence......" is available now in stores and the French-subtitled film release arrives later, this Fall.              

EJLinc

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