We Were Here - The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe

The acclaimed documentary We Were Here unveils the untold history of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe through iconic artworks. This cinematic journey across Europe and the African diaspora, guided by living voices, scholars, encounters and real places illuminates the human stories hidden within Renaissance art and cultural memory. Interweaving art history with social narratives, the multilingual film creates a rich, layered perspective on the complex tapestry of Black presence often overlooked in conventional historical accounts. In 2024, Adriano Pedrosa selected Fred Kudjo Kuwornu's We Were Here to exhibit at the Central Pavilion of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. This prestigious selection highlights the film's significance in addressing themes of cultural identity and historical erasure within global contemporary art discourse.

Q&A with Director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu

Following the screening, you are invited to participate in a filmmaker-led discussion and reception with the director and artist Fred Kudjo Kuwornu. This event provides a unique opportunity to engage with the film’s themes, explore the research and creative process behind the project, and reflect on broader questions of race, identity, and historical memory raised by the documentary.

Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is a multi-hyphenate socially engaged artist, filmmaker, and scholar whose work is deeply influenced by his background as a person of African descent. Born and raised in Italy, Kuwornu is based in New York. His unique identity is reflected in his triple citizenship— Italian, Ghanaian, and U.S.—and in a multidisciplinary practice that spans over a decade.

By consistently bridging the past and present, the hegemonic and subaltern, the seen and unseen, Kuwornu’s practice emerges as a vital contribution to contemporary visual culture, illuminating the complex interplay between history, identity, race, and representation in our globalized world. His curatorial vision operates as a form of historical remixing, reconfiguring archival materials and contemporary narratives to challenge dominant frameworks and offer alternative readings.

In 2024, Kuwornu’s film We Were Here – The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe exhibited at the 60ᵗʰ Venice Art Biennale, Central Pavilion, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. In 2025, the film qualified for the Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature category and was considered for the NAACP Image Awards. That same year, he was awarded both the Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship and the Dan David Prize (2025), the world’s largest history award, in recognition of his career-long contributions to public history and cultural memory through audiovisual language.

Kuwornu began his filmmaking career working on the set of Spike Lee’s film Miracle at St. Anna (2008), an experience that catalyzed his commitment to narrative justice through film Over the last decade, Kuwornu’s work has been exhibited in major cultural institutions and platforms including the Museum of Moving Image (New York), the Library of Congress, the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), and the George Eastman Museum, as well as in international film festivals. He is also the founder of the Black Europe Film Festival in Minneapolis and curator of the Black Italian Film Showcase, two platforms committed to amplifying diasporic voices and transnational Black perspectives in cinema.

More info: https://www.fredkuwornu.com

This screening is generously supported by Western’s Film Studies Program, Visual Arts, SASAH, English & Writing Studies, Theory & Criticism, Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Black Studies, Languages and Cultures, Western’s Early Modern Society and the Department of History.