Film short abstract:

In the Wake of Loss is a documentary portrait that illuminates the intimate and small in the wake of unresolved loss in post-transitional Gambia.

Film long abstract:

In the Wake of Loss presents an ethnographic account of twenty-year-old Amie Lowe, whose father disappeared when she was only three. Amie’s father, Lieutenant Ebou Lowe, was one of the many victims of enforced disappearance during former President Yahya Jammeh’s 22-year-long dictatorship in The Gambia. After Jammeh was forced from power, the current president established a Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (2018 - 2021) to investigate his human rights abuses. Since its final report, however, few of the commission’s recommendations have been implemented. This documentary portrait examines how a now-adult child of the forcibly disappeared, in the "post-truth commission era" deals with the ramifications of this violent past after the official channels of mourning have stalled. The personal portrait between Amie in front of the camera and Amie behind the camera illuminates the intimate and small in the interminable wake of unresolved loss.