ORYZA: Healing Ground

Oryza: Healing Ground is an experimental animated documentary that interrogates colonial legacies embedded in archives through the lens of Black land stewardship. Blending live-action, archival materials, and animation, the film reimagines archives as living systems. A custom AI trained on Black histories generates evolving digital motifs rooted in Afrocentric perspectives, challenging the exclusion of Black voices from algorithmic technologies. Beginning with West African rice cultivation carried by enslaved farmers, the film traces nearly forgotten histories, weaving past, present, and future to honor enduring relationships between Black communities and land.