ANOTHER OTHER (2025)
9’ | 35mm
Another Other juxtaposes the interrogations of two Black American figures by white state officials. On screen, we watch Lieutenant Smith, a police officer portrayed by Wesley Snipes in Rising Sun (1993), while we hear the voice of Claudine Gay, the 30th president of Harvard University — the first Black woman president in its 387-year history. The audio originates from the December 6, 2023 congressional hearing where Gay was accused by the U.S. government of fostering antisemitism on campus during the autumn 2023 protests against Israel’s genocide in occupied Palestine.
This formal experiment in image, sound, and subtitle dissects the language (body and verbal) of Smith and Gay to uncover the roles they strive to maintain within the institutions they serve. By tailoring their speech and conforming to bureaucratic, legal codes — even when those codes engender violence and corruption — both subjects reveal themselves as collaborators with racist and antiblack systems; even as those systems attempt to chew them up and spit them out.
This formal experiment in image, sound, and subtitle dissects the language (body and verbal) of Smith and Gay to uncover the roles they strive to maintain within the institutions they serve. By tailoring their speech and conforming to bureaucratic, legal codes — even when those codes engender violence and corruption — both subjects reveal themselves as collaborators with racist and antiblack systems; even as those systems attempt to chew them up and spit them out.
Director: Bex Oluwatoyin Thompson
Sound Support: Gustavo Borges
Found Footage: Harvard Art, Film, and Visual Studies Department
Found Sound: C-SPAN House Committee Archives
Archival Sources: Rising Sun (1993), House Education and Workforce Hearing (2023), James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni “A Dialogue” on Television Program Soul! (1971)
Special Thanks:
Kathryn Abarbanel
Nathalie Attallah
Gustavo Borges
Ella St. Hilaire
Jumana Manna
Aily Nash
Sound Support: Gustavo Borges
Found Footage: Harvard Art, Film, and Visual Studies Department
Found Sound: C-SPAN House Committee Archives
Archival Sources: Rising Sun (1993), House Education and Workforce Hearing (2023), James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni “A Dialogue” on Television Program Soul! (1971)
Special Thanks:
Kathryn Abarbanel
Nathalie Attallah
Gustavo Borges
Ella St. Hilaire
Jumana Manna
Aily Nash
Another Other has been selected and screened in multiple film festivals and won the Jury Prize for the best Short Film at Visions du Réel 2025.