Rejoice Resist by Elisha Smith-Leverock.

With The Place, Elisha Smith-Leverock creates a film that celebrates and shows Black joy, Black resilience and Black pleasure as the ultimate form of resistance.

“Joy is not found in the absence of pain and suffering. It exists through it. ... Blackness is an immense and defiant joy.” - Imani Perry

The scripted situations in The Place are inspired by current meme culture and viral videos which members of the Black community have been sharing to up-lift each other in these emotionally fraught times. With the onslaught of bad news and worse news ever present in our feeds, this content has been a bit of a lifeline to Smith-Leverock and many people she knows.

“Black joy. It’s the jokes we share. It’s when we break out in dance in the middle of a protest. A little to get you through the day but also something that feels like it only belongs to us because of the full and deep understanding of the humor evades people who are not part of our community.” - Elisha Smith-Leverock

The film, surreal and lighthearted, features a strong female comedic lead, a tour guide of sorts, guiding a group of Black women through London, instructing the women of ways to experience Black joy.