America ReFramed

AUTOMATED VOICE: To listen to your messages, press one.

(phone beeps) BROTHER: Hey, Iyabo.

Yo, check this out.

I have a movie idea for you.

IYABO: My brother had a mental breakdown and left the house.

NATASHA DEL TORO: After her brother goes missing, filmmaker Iyabo Kwayana creates a visual journey of memory, connection and healing.

By Water, a special edition of America ReFramed.

CROWD: Four, three, two, one!

BOY: Come on!

(birds singing) (engine revving softly) (car door thudding) (birds singing) (telephone buttons beeping) AUTOMATED VOICE: You have 16 saved voice messages.

To listen to your messages, press one.

First saved voice message.

Sent Saturday, November 4th at 11:19 AM from phone number (747) 283-4843.

BROTHER: Hey, Iyabo.

This is, you know, this is.

But yo, check this out, I have a movie idea for you.

There's this guy.

It's a romantic comedy, okay?

There's this guy.

It could be a romantic drama, dramedy, or drama even.

But there's this guy, and it's just like a day in his life, you know?

And he's running some errands, right?

But passes a woman, you know, and (woman humming) as he, as he passes her, he gets the smell of.

You know, he passes these different women and he gets different smells, like from his memory, you know?

Like he passes the first woman and he smells Play-Doh.

You know, and it takes him back to the time where he was playing Play-Doh as a kid, and you know, whatever, right?

And then he passes another woman on the sidewalk, you know, as he's going to wherever he, running his errands or whatever.

And it's like, he smells vanilla.

You know, and he's back in, oh let's say he's back in Georgetown, Guyana.

He's taking that vanilla ice cream they had there.

the real vanilla, you know, like actual one.

(leaves rustling) Okay.

And so just stuff like that.

(birds chirping) The movie idea.

but might wanna run with it.

(wind whooshing) I hope things are well with you.

And I don't know.

I'm, I'm around, but.

I'm also not around.

So, I hope things good with you, okay.

(geese honking) (phone beep) AUTOMATED VOICE: End of message.

(geese honking) (geese honking drown out voice) (birds singing) (whistling short melody) (birds singing) (geese honking, birds chattering) (wind whooshing) (feathers rustling) (industrial noises) (crow cawing) (feathers rustling) (door hinge squeaking) (petals crunching) (faint metallic music) (faint humming) (speaking foreign language faintly) (coyote howling) (typewriter clacking) (owl hooting) BROTHER: There's this guy.

He, uh.

An old man, let's say back in Georgetown, Guyana.

And this guy, you know (overlapping speech) well past year, different women and he gets different smells.

Play-Doh as a kid.

I'm around, but I'm also not around.

(speaking foreign language faintly) (dog barking) (speaking foreign language faintly) (water pattering) (water pattering) (ambient voice-like sound) (water gurgling, dripping) (sirens, traffic noises) (footsteps) Well I Sometimes I am tall And sometimes I am driven, Lord (hinge squeaking) (low cosmic rumbling) Yeah, Sometimes, oh (water gurgling, wind chimes) (flamingo calling) (water splashing, dripping) (metallic ambient music) (wind chimes) (paper rustling) (pencil scratching) - By water, I bloom.

You know, I flower, I grow, I thrive, you know.

I develop.

(traffic sounds, geese honking) I. I find rest.

I find.

You know?

I find where I find myself.

I was.

Maybe.

I have a place to stand, you know?

(wind chimes, birds singing) (water gurgling) - [Iyabo] When do you feel most at home?

- I feel most at home.

Um, uh.

Maybe when I have space.

You know?

When I have space.

Like in my own circumference.

You know?

Space to myself.

(faint upbeat music) like.

You know?

Independent, like a kind of independence, you know?

I mean, I, I, I know what interdependence is, but I'm referring to independence, you know.