News directly from Cornell's colleges and centers

Professors’ documentary short wins award

By Linda B. Glaser

April 25, 2023

The Award for Film and Video from the Society of Architectural Historians has been given to the film “We Love We Self Up Here,” produced by Natalie Melas, associate professor of comparative literature in the College of Arts and Sciences and Tao DuFour, assistant professor of architecture in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. The documentary short was directed by filmmaker Kannan Arunasalam.

Behind the scenes of “We Love We Self Up Here.” Cornell students Austin Lillywhite (left) and Afifa Ltifi (slightly visible besides) with filmmaker Kannan Arunasalam.

The film explores narratives of lived experiences of urban, agricultural, and industrial landscapes tied to colonial and postcolonial legacies of sugar production and hydrocarbon extraction in Trinidad & Tobago.

It grew out of a Mellon Expanded Practice Seminar co-taught by Melas and DuFour in fall 2019: Atmospheric Pressures: Climate Imaginaries and Migration in the Caribbean. The course included a week long field trip to Trinidad.

Linda B. Glaser is news and media relations manager for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.

Architecture & Design