Experiencing Interruptions?

Talking Walls

Multiple voices reflect on the language, sounds, touch, history and choice of public and private, Black and queer spaces.

  • Marcellus
    Director
  • Marcellus
    Producer
  • Asadullah Saed
    Producer
  • Raishad Momar
    Producer
  • Raishad Momar
    Director of Photography
  • Yashaswi Dixit
    Animation
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    27 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    38,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Doxa Documentary Film Festival
    Vancouver
    Canada
    May 2, 2025
    World Premier
    Nominee: Best Short Documentary
  • BlackStar Film Festival
    Philadelphia
    United States
    July 31, 2025
    Philadelphia Premiere
    Audience Award - Short Documentary & Philadelphia Filmmaker Award
Director Biography - Marcellus

Marcellus (Marcellus Armstrong) is an artist, filmmaker, media programmer and educator. His work focuses on archival and material notions of Blackness and queerness. Since 2019, Marcellus has been collecting oral histories as part of an ongoing archival project, Talking Walls, nominated for Best Short Documentary by DOXA Film Festival 2025. In 2018, he created "The 48203 Dance Show", a community-based dance show project centered around the archive of WGPR-TV33, located in Detroit, Michigan. He continues to be rooted within participatory community media, working with Scribe Video Center, Detroit Sound Conservancy, and as a film professor at Temple University. He received his MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017. Originally from the suburbs of Baltimore, Marcellus currently resides in Philadelphia.

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Director Statement

Talking Walls began with a wondrous conversation with Alfred Johnson, a queer elder living in the Boston-Edison neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan since 1969. A tour of Alfred's home is a tour through periods of Alfred's life.Having conversations with Alfred sparked an inquiry into the nature of building sanctuary—of letting the places we call(ed) home be a record in telling our stories.

What are the textual differences when approaching one’s story from where they have been rather than what they have been through? If we are trees, we may begin a conversation with “where did you find proper sunlight?” and yet still arrive at the answer of ring-formation.

I am both Black and queer—historically there are many stories to be told of spaces that accepted my identity when much of the world did not. When it was not safe to exist in public, we gathered privately—these homes, speakeasies, and social clubs became sanctuary spaces. These places are a record of resilience, love, joy and music.

The summer of 2022, a friend reminded me of an African proverb, "when and elder dies, a library burns to the ground". That same summer, The Woodward, Michigan's oldest bar and Detroits oldest LGBT+ bar was destroyed by a fire.