Brainwave #5 | Mar Azul: Reflections on Loss and Migratory Grief
By Jennifer Silva
- Date
- 4 June 2026
- Time
- 19:00 -21:00
- Location
- BG 3
- Room
- VOX-POP
Although a universal experience, grief is a deeply intimate experience shaped by our identity and expressed through cultural norms. This evening seeks to intersect two experiences of grief: migratory grief and the loss of a loved one.
Migration is etched into the social fabric of the Cape Verdean people. With more people living outside of the archipelago than on the islands themselves. Therefore, the theme of migratory grief has been explored and is known deeply amongst the Cape Verdean people. In her thesis, Jennifer Silva explored grief and continuing bonds in the Cape Verdean diaspora in Brazil. She will discuss her findings.
The event features a screening of the film, The Last Harvest by Nuno Miranda Boaventura. The film paints an intergenerational portrait of the Cape Verdean community and diaspora in Lisbon, exploring topics such as sense of belonging and diasporic grief. The screening is followed by an aftertalk with the director of the film.
To close, we delve back into the Dutch context, where a large Cape Verdean community lives. Together with Janilda Bartolomeu a multidisciplinary Cape Verdean artist who explores the topic of grief and melancholy in her work.
Programme
19:00 - Presentation by Jennifer Silva
19:20 - Film screening The Last Harvest
19:40 - Discussion with Nuno Boaventura Miranda
20:10 - Exploring the Dutch context with Janilda Bartolomeu
Nuno Miranda Boaventura is a Cape Verdean filmmaker based in Lisbon, known for exploring themes of identity through a poetic style and narrative. His debut film, Kmêdeus: Eat God (2020) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His recent narrative short, The Last Harvest (2025) examines Cape Verdean immigration in Lisbon. Nuno is an EAVE alumnus. As an editor and sound designer, he has also collaborated in other projects, including Yuri Ceunick's Omi Nobu: The New Man (2023), and has worked as an assistant on set for Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela (2019). He is currently developing his first feature, The Flowers Of Of The Dead, furthering a commitment to a unique visual and narrative aesthetic for contemporary Cape Verdean cinema.
Janilda Bartolomeu is a filmmaker, artist, and researcher whose work engages with the ghosts of colonial pasts, collective imaginaries, and diasporic cinema. Through an imaginative lens, she not only documents these themes but also explores new speculative futures, positioning her practice at the intersection of memory and world-building. She currently works as a filmmaker, artist, and curator, and has collaborated with institutions including Het Nieuwe Instituut, RAW Material Company, EYE Filmmuseum, and International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Mar Azul's speaker and curator
Jennifer Silva is an anthropologist and community archivist in Rotterdam, recently graduated from the University of Amsterdam. For her thesis, she conducted research on parental loss and contuining bonds amongst Cape Verdean diaspora members in Brazil.
