Film
In Production
About
The precious final words of revolutionary Black artist and activist Elizabeth Catlett are discovered by her granddaughter, Naima Mora—who follows her grandmother’s voice as it calls to her in dreams.
Long silenced by political censorship, Catlett’s never-before-seen memoir will be brought to life as Naima carries her grandmother’s voice on a transformative visual pilgrimage across the United States and Mexico. Through Catlett’s art, archival materials, and newly revealed FBI files, ELIZABETH SPEAKS will unveil an intimate portrait of an artist, a revolutionary, and a voice reclaimed.
“The revolutionary artist and her granddaughter, both as never seen or heard before…”
ARCHIVES
About Elizabeth Catlett
A formidable voice in the Chicago Renaissance, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and Mexican Printmaking movement, Elizabeth Catlett centered the lived experience, resilience, and brilliance of Black women. After relocating to Mexico City in 1946, she joined El Taller de Gráfica Popular, creating for working-class people and radiating influence across Latin America and the United States. Her work offered an unflinching depiction of racial and social injustice, expressed through commanding visual politics. Targeted under McCarthyism, she was abducted from her home in 1959, imprisoned as a “foreign agitator,” and declared an “undesirable alien” by 1962—denied re-entry to the U.S. until 1971. Out of exile, Elizabeth emerged a revolutionary artist whose visionary contribution to the dignity of human life through art is only now receiving recognition.
As ELIZABETH SPEAKS is still in production and scheduled to premiere June 2028, please enjoy the clip to your right presented by Brooklyn Museum for the traveling retrospective “A Black Revolutionary Artist & All That It Implies.”
Director’s
Statement
“There were only two short interviews I found of my grandma online, and every time the director called ‘cut’ i could tell there was more she wasn’t allowed to say just yet. So I began to search for a woman who had been censored and silenced for decades and whom sacrificed her own voice, and risked her very life, so that her art could accomplish its mission… to platform the voices of all of us who are silenced in this world.
And i determined to immortalize her voice in a way deserving of her revolutionary spirit, that only a granddaughter can do. Because she asked me in my dreams. And I found what she tasked me to… it’s time the world has heard Elizabeth Speak.”
-naima
SUPPORT THE FILM
100% Of Donations will go to the production and completion of the film ELIZABETH SPEAKS— bringing to life the voice and legacy of artist, Elizabeth Catlett.
WAYS TO SUPPORT:
SPREAD THE WORD… let your folks know about the film and the work we’re doing. A little whisper whisper never hurt nobody.
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Made possible with generous support by
Part of the making of this film includes the in depth archival research of and utilizing segments of never before seen original audio and visual recordings from interviews of Elizabeth Catlett during her lifetime. An ever-present motif of Elizabeth Speaks, is resurfacing the voice of an artist and black woman who created prolific work during a time of political censorship, abduction, and erasure. Further research in international archives & filming on location where Elizabeth lived her life is needed for the completion of the project.
Current resources include artifacts preserved by The Amistad Research Center, L&S Video documentaries, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, National Visionary Leadership Project preserved by American Folklife Center of the Library Of Congress and collected stories from people who knew Catlett well and were closest to her.
Elizabeth Speaks is made possible with the gracious support of “The Elizabeth Catlett Mora Family Living Trust" and the following institutions for purposes of filming, research and permissions.
A special mention of gratitude to the curatorial and research team of the retrospective exhibition “ELIZABETH CATLETT: A Black Revolutionary Artist & All that It Implies” for their generous support in these research endeavors. Dalila Scruggs, Catherine Morris, Mary Lee Corlett, Rashieda Witter and Sarah Kelly Oehler.
Additional gratitude is extended to director Juan Mora-Catlett for his generous contribution of footage of Elizabeth Catlett used as excerpts from his films “The Work of Elizabeth Catlett” and “Betty & Pancho.”
