Ajay Abalaka chronicles life in a utopia in The Sublime

‘In the sublime, can you hear my heart cry?’

Writer, photographer and filmmaker, Ajay Abalaka chronicles life in a utopia in The Sublime which she views as a continuation of the first stanza of Maya Angelou’s Alone.

What was once a prose piece written in a journal, The Sublime blossomed into the Abalaka’s first film. What’s interesting is the name which suggests a sense of grandeur, and it aligns with the power behind human emotion.

The narrator recites poetry to represent the mind of the character striking a verbal contrast with the visual environment. There’s an attempt to make sense of the world around her.

Despite being her first film, Abalaka does a good job. Bringing her writing to life through her use of colour, sharp images and accompanying sounds.

Below is Angelou’s Alone followed by Abalaka’s The Sublime.

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can’t use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They’ve got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
‘Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.