On a Sunday at Eleven
NARRATIVE / 9 MINUTES / ENGLISH / CANADA

A young Black ballerina performs her Sunday rituals while facing the pressure to perform whiteness. An unapologetic celebration of the powerful, ancestral bond embedded in Black women.


Alicia K. Harris
Like most Black girls, growing up, I internalized Eurocentric beauty standards, seeing only white women’s beauty being celebrated in the media. The film exposes the pressures Black women face from a young age to “whiten” our natural features and how the mainstream beauty industry and the institution of ballet are complicit.
Combatting the negative messages the lead character Angel receives is the community of Black women who show her that Black is beautiful. This film is a sensational celebration of Black cultural identity and our hair—and especially, the sisterhood that exists between Black women, which transcends the physical world.
From the royal costumes to the elaborate hair art, this Black-women-led creative team showed the Black women and girls in our cast the royalty they’ve always been. The energy on set was electrifying, like we all knew we were capturing something special.
I feel so excited to share this film with the world and show all the little Black girls this celebration of their unique beauty!
– Alicia
CREDITS
Written & Directed By: Alicia K. Harris
Producer: Hayley Brown, Jeff Chiu
Co-Producer: Ollie Coombs
Associate Producer: Silvio Passaro
Cinematographer: Jeremy Cox
Production Designer: Nicole Simmons
Costume Designers: Charlene Akuamoah, Kahmeelia Smith
Editor: Ashley Gilmour
Sound Designer: Paul Lucien Col
Choreographer: Zoë Edwards
Hair Art & Design: D’andra Morris
Key Hair & Makeup Artist: Rahnell Branton