SEEK: A short film and visual art love letter to music, dance, and poetry by Nicole Panashe

Nicole Panashe is a Zimbabwean filmmaker currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her recent project ‘SEEK’ challenges traditional filmmaking, combining the vividly artistic worlds of music and dance.

In a search for her purpose, a young woman's psyche is explored as she questions her existence, identity, and reality. ‘SEEK’ is an abbreviation for the words silence, escape, everlasting and kingdom. Serving as a visual piece to a deeply binding score by Atlanta musician, Diamant, the film incorporates music, dance, poetry, and written/spoken word to intimately explore themes surrounding identity, strength and self.

“I wanted to tell this story because it is about the experience of a young woman battling with her sense of self. I wanted to explore some of the conversations that one has mentally when it comes to discovering their voice, their purpose and their value. Mental health discussions are often glossed over in media, and I wanted to use art, in the forms of music and dance as a window into it, humanizing all of different areas in the mind that encompass those challenging questions or thoughts that can occur”

Along with being the sole writer-director, the film was an entirely self-produced passion project. The micro-budget film was made by a BIPOC and women-led cast and skeleton-crew, with an African director, and a cinematographer and lead actress of African descent.

The film has just begun it’s film festival run and has seen early selections. It is currently a finalist in it’s first two entries, at the New York International Film Awards and the Rome Prisma Film Awards.

Nicole is most proud of elevating the voices and talents of young women creatives in the Atlanta music and dance scene. When it comes to future plans, she is looking to further her film producing career through television and feature films, with the future goal of creating her own shows and films that give a platform and visibility to African stories and minorities.

SEEK is currently making its way on the festival circuit and will be fully released online when complete.

Watch a excerpt of the film here