Senegal’s first female contemporary artist Younousse Seye, 85, hasn’t had an exhibition in 30 years. When the art world suddenly becomes interested in her repertoire again, she must reckon with the structures that once forgot her. Seye starred in Ousmane Sembène’s films, counted Wole Soyinka among her friends, and schmoozed with Kwame Touré and Miriam Makeba at her restaurant. Yet unlike her male peers, she remains largely forgotten. 

Director Lendl Tellington has seen The Age of All Women: The Becoming of Younousse Sèye, generate renewed interest in Seye’s work from collectors, galleries, and museums but he is also navigating what it means for the film to become part of the very art world machinery he’s examining. In this work-in-progress screening, Tellington is looking to answer the following: How to honor Seye’s agency while also retaining editorial vision and how to illuminate African archive sovereignty when so much historical material remains housed off the continent?

Presenter Bio

Lendl Tellington is a filmmaker and visual artist who tinkers with time like music—remixing the line between prescribed histories and collective memory. Working across cinema, photography, and installation, his practice illuminates how communities forge their own systems of value beyond institutional recognition. He transforms traditional power dynamics by creating intimate spaces where subjects become collaborators in shaping their own representation. His work has been recognized by the Smithsonian’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and supported by Sundance Institute and Firelight Media Documentary Lab.

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