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Program Notes

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Catching Shadow 
2021
Duration: 6:02

Catching Shadow is the story of an Obeah woman who petitions a Silk Cotton tree for a spirit bound there and when she makes it to the water, she realizes that she has, inadvertently, freed more than intended. The spirits in the film, aptly represented by photographs, which are essentially light and shadow, point to another historical reference to “shadow” as self-representation in the famous Sojourner Truth inscription on her cartes de visite, “I sell the shadow to support the substance.” The film is based on an actual practice outlined in Martha Beckwith’s book, Black Roadways, which documents inquiry into Jamaican folkways from 1919-1924.

When the Lionfish Came
2015
Duration: 6:02

A six-minute experimental, short film that superimposes the natural world with the cultural environment. This film uses metaphor to address both the effects of capitalism and climate change in the Caribbean—particularly The Bahamas. The lionfish, predatory-outsider, non-native species in the Atlantic, has since the early 90s, wrought havoc on reef systems in the Atlantic Ocean. This film is an illustration of disappearing Bahamian culture (through Junkanoo and reef imagery), the palpability of the absence of real climate change initiatives, and the continued pursuit of capitalistic endeavors (tourism) despite cultural decline. Using both shot and found footage and rendered in black and white to counter ideas of the tropical ideal, this film posits that perhaps the lionfish came to provide clear illustration of the region’s fate without intervention.

Returning the Gaze 
2018
Duration: 5:04

Created in response to a failed Bahamian constitutional referendum in 2016, Returning the Gaze  juxtaposes all the West Indian films featuring women from the Thomas Edison Paper Film Collection at the Library of Congress with contemporary footage—shot in the Bahamas—as a response to the archival films. The referendum sought (among other things)  to extend women equal rights in passing along citizenship to their spouses and children. The contemporary characters represent what that footage would like if the characters had a higher degree of agency. The original films, coupled with their written descriptions in the film catalog, demonstrate power—both apparent and perceived. 

A Thousand Points of Light
2018 
Duration: 20:08 (excerpted selections)

The footage in this 3-channel-installation is archival footage of my family’s old home movies. The films were included in the exhibit as a representation of my grandmother’s memories. The sound in this installation is Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s address to the 72nd UN General Assembly to plead for aid and call attention to the devastation Dominica experienced after Hurricane Maria made landfall. Although the people in the installation are my family, they represent the people of the region. They remind us of what’s in danger of disappearance without climate intervention—the historical narrative as it pertains to Black bodies in the Caribbean—is one of erasure. Everyday occurrences are eclipsed by the paradise narrative—these films are a reminder that we are real people living full lives and the stakes are high. The long silence at the end of the film is intentionally left blank to incorporate additional enigmatic speeches on the effects of regional climate crises from Caribbean leaders as they occur over time.

By the Skin of Her Teeth (work-in-progress)
2026

By the Skin of Her Teeth explores a nearly lost but important chapter in local history: the story of Harriet Powell’s escape from enslavement. Part reenactment, part abstraction, Galanis’ film draws from the tiny, yet evocative archival remnants of her story, paying homage to Powell and the committed abolitionists who helped her on the road to freedom from downtown Syracuse to Ontario. 

This short film project is made possible through a New York State Council on the Arts Support for Artists Grant with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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About the Filmmaker

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Tamika Galanis is a Bahamian-American documentarian and multimedia visual artist whose work considers the relationship between historical documentary accounts and the extractive power relations they often obscure. Her work seeks to produce counter-archives that promote archival futurity and speculative interventions that allow us to encounter a past that has been systematically effaced.

Galanis’s work has been shown internationally, including at the Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival, The Bahamas International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, BlackStar Film Festival, L.A. Film Forum, MOCA Los Angeles, Hong Gah Museum in Taipei, and the inaugural Smithsonian African American Film Festival.

Galanis earned her MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University. She is a former Jon B. Lovelace Fellow for the Study of the Alan Lomax Collection at the Library of Congress; the inaugural Post-MFA Fellow of Documentary Arts at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; and, former Fellow of Film and Media Studies at Emory University.

Galanis currently splits her time between The Bahamas and Upstate New York where she is an Assistant Professor of Film at Syracuse University.

Artist’s website: tamikagalanis.com

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Accessibility

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Light Work is wheelchair accessible. Films will be captioned. CART services for the Q&A portion of the event will be provided.

To make accommodation requests or ask questions about facilities, please contact uvp@lightwork.org or 315-443-1369.

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Sponsors

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Major support for this event and the related workshop comes from the Syracuse University Humanities Center as part of Syracuse Symposium 2026-27: DREAMS. The related project, By the Skin of Her Teeth, was created with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts.

Light Work programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. By the Skin of Her Teeth received additional support through a 2026 NYSCA Support for Artists grant.

Light Work programs are made possible through through a Tier Two grant from the County of Onondaga, with the support of County Executive Ryan McMahon and the Onondaga County Legislature, administered by CNY Arts