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We Were Here

We Were Here –The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissance Europe, highlighting their depiction in masterpieces by some of the era’s most celebrated artists.

How did they come to Europe? Why were they portrayed? Were they truly all servants or enslaved? If the Black faces depicted in these Renaissance masterpieces could speak, what would they tell us?

We Were Here exhibited at the Central Pavilion of the 60ᵗʰ International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale and was entered into consideration for the 98th Academy Awards® 2026 – Best Documentary Feature.

Watch a trailer here, and find out more about the film here.

Before the screening there will be an introduction by filmmaker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu and afterwards there will be a discussion and audience Q&A.

This film is presented in partnership with Black at Sussex as part of Black History Month.

Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Italian-Ghanaian and U.S. multi-hyphenate socially engaged artist, filmmaker, curator and scholar based in New York. His work bridges past and present, the seen and unseen, exploring identity and race through historical remixing of archival materials. Kuwornu's films have been exhibited at the 60ᵗʰ Venice Art Biennale in the Central Pavillion curated by Adriano Pedrosa (2024), museums and international film festivals and in 2025 his most recent feature documentary qualified for Academy Awards For Your Consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category.

In 2025, Kuwornu was awarded the Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship for his innovative approach to early modern European history through the lens of the African diaspora. He also received the Dan David Prize, the world’s largest history award, in recognition of his career-long contributions to public history and cultural memory through audiovisual language.