Brother Portrait is a Sierra Leonean Black British artist releasing music that blends spoken word poetry and hip-hop under his solo moniker and with his Black/Other group.
His latest music video, which features two of his songs “Seeview” and “Rearview,” explores the duality of migrant identity through two narratives: dream and nightmare.
The clip starts off in a beautiful and breezy loft, in which Brother Portrait sips tea and enjoy a meal with friends and family, before things quickly shatter into a maniacal warehouse scenario drained of all color.
“For me both songs have the sense of a head rocking back and forth from the past to present. They look at a couple of memories, photographs, and the feelings evoked from them—good, bad and uncertain,” Brother Portrait tells Okayafrica.
The video was directed by emerging Algerian photographer and filmmaker Nadira Amrani, a visual artist “interested in the migrant memory and new generation of Africa,” she mentions. Amrani's also a founder of POC (People Of Colours), a creative collective interested in promoting diversity within the film industry.
“After meeting Brother Portrait in spoken word circles in South London last year, I was hugely inspired by the lyrics in his work and really related to his experience,” Amrani mentions to Okayafrica. “The film really looks at this idea of cultural limbo and understanding self dual identity.”
“Particularly in London, I’m interested in the idea of migrant memories and surreal dreams in collaboration with spoken word. As a British Algerian artist I always felt that I needed to communicate between two separate worlds. As an image translator and time traveling storyteller, I like to incorporate social and cultural references in my work to tell a story based on real experience... From familiar family moments and rituals, to a burning book, I’m very much interested in the blending the composition of classical paintings with the realness of the contemporary cultural experience," Amrani adds.
“Seeview” and “Rearview” will feature on Brother Portrait’s debut mixtape navigate in:limbo, which is due before the end of the year.
Keep up with Brother Portrait on Souncloud/Instagram/Facebook and Nadira Amrani on Twitter/Instagram.
