Your Pain Was Born Here

Your Pain Was Born Here is a non-linear docu-narrative highlighting the stories of anti-Blackness, Black love, and community. This film bridges the gap between the Black-American communities and the Black European diaspora. The documentary follows director Wilhelmina Simone (Mina), uncovering hidden parts of herself. Years later while reviewing the footage, she saw the unravelings of her relationships with friends, family, herself, and her Blackness. Each person and interview represented a part of herself she had yet to discover. Through this process, the film wove itself into a love letter to herself and the Black community –– a coming-of-age story.

The story continues as Mina and her team travel to 5 European countries and develops around each person's interview along her journey. The key themes consist of being a Black Woman, colorism, intersectionality, systematic racism, shame, and finding self & community. Through this journey, we learn the similarities and differences between the Black experience of Europeans and Americans through the lens of the subjects and Mina. Showing that Blackness, in all of its pits and glory, is a collective and human experience.