Work samples

  • The Periscopic Gaze Trailer

    An intimate documentary short exploring the ancestral survival strategies Black women use to navigate and fully live in a world that is hostile to Black female life.

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About Kalima

Baltimore City  

Dr. Kalima Young is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic Media and Film at Towson University. Her research explores the impact of race and gender-based trauma on Black identity, media, and cultural production. Her recent work includes The Periscopic Gaze (2024), a documentary exploring Black women’s ancestral survival strategies, and Damn Y’all Fine (2025), a journey into Black queer aesthetics in Baltimore. She is a 2022 Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund Fellow and a 2023 Docs… more

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The Periscopic Gaze

The Periscopic Gaze is a speculative documentary short exploring Black women’s inherited wisdom as told through the memories of three sisters born years apart.

If trauma lives in our DNA, why can’t resilience? The Periscopic Gaze is anchored by the personal reflections of three sisters’ memories of the spoken and unspoken wisdoms gleaned from their deceased mother. A visual rumination on memory, family lore, embodied knowledge and the history embedded in our DNA, The Periscopic Gaze uses one family’s story as the entry point to illuminate questions of inherited memory, inherited trauma, and inherited resilience. In doing so, it sheds light on Black women’s embodied knowledge, validating their reality and giving others a glimpse into Black female interiority.

Run Time: 21.31 |2024

  • The Periscopic Gaze Trailer
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    Damn Y'All Fine

    A journey into the self-stylings of Baltimore’s Black queer artists and activists, Damn Y’all Fine explores how living in Baltimore shapes the way Black queer folx express their gender and sexual identities.

    Run Time: 41:26

    • Damn Y'all Fine Trailer
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    Lessons Learned (Feature)

    In the midst of a rash of murders in Baltimore, journalist Justin Bishop does not know if he is the killer or the next victim.

    • Lessons Learned (Feature Film)

      Lessons Learned is a queer psychological thriller filmed in Baltimore.  

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