Karimah Ashadu’s Films Honor the Everyday Labor of African Workers

Anything can serve as a support for Karimah Ashadu’s camera. The artist and filmmaker attaches her device to bodies and machines, granting viewers unconventional perspectives. Most of her shorts depict African laborers. The nine-minute Lagos Sand Merchants (2013) is shot from the strictly limited vantage point of machinery that advances in a Ferris-wheel-like motion. We’re disoriented as we watch the otherwise rhythmic and monotonous labor of the workers unearthing sand from the Lago