14 a 17/NOV | das 15h às 21h | Anexo CineSesc
Direction: Mikael Owunna e Marques Redd
Country: EUA
Year: 2025
Duration: 17 min
Rating: 14 years
Blackstar Sanctuary is a virtual reality experience that immerses users in a world grounded in queer African spiritual and cosmological traditions. Upon donning a VR headset, users are transported to ancient Egypt, where they are welcomed by the Rainbow Serpent, a mythical figure who serves as a guide.
Following the Serpent’s path, users explore a vast complex of temples adorned with towering sculptures of 16 queer African deities — each embodying a unique facet of divinity — and visit the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, the earliest recorded same-sex couple in human history, dating back to 2500 BCE.
As users navigate the temple’s sacred spaces, they undergo a ritual of transformation and rebirth, watched over by deities and ancestors. Blending virtual reality with queer history and spirituality, “Blackstar Sanctuary” reclaims and reanimates a long-suppressed lineage of queer African divinity and offers a powerful challenge to heteronormative interpretations of the past.
CREDITS
Alexandre Roccoli: Artistic direction, director and choreographer
Marcos Serafim: Visual research, conception and creation of augmented reality devices, proprioceptive game
Fernando Oikawa: Image editor and film editor
Eduardo Augusto Urban: Psychologist, researcher and coordinator at CAPS Bom Retiro
Jonathan Tavares: Performance artist, coordinator at CAPS Bom Retiro
Mayron: Casaflorecer
Élisa: Casaflorecer
Vicky: Casaflorecer
Dora Leão: Support and production
Frank Finance Madureira: President of Queer Palm, consultant in France
