Backwards God Synopsis
Backwards God tells the story of how man-made God in his image. The film interweaves elements of ecology and spirituality to retell the book of Genesis through a womanist lens.
About the Filmmaker
Natalie Cook is a filmmaker, poet, and theater-maker. Natalie’s poetry film, “Backwards God,” received the Best Social Justice Film Award at the New York International Film Awards, the Mini Short Award at the Media Done Responsibly Film Festival, and was the Grand Prize Winner of the AT&T Film Awards. She is the founder of Atlanta Word Works, as well as an alumna of the First Wave Hip Hop Theatre Ensemble, the BARS Workshop at The Public Theater, and the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program.
She received a Bachelor in Arts in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing and Afro-American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Arts in Film, Black Studies, and Art Education from the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
More from the Filmmaker
“I experienced sexual harassment for an extensive period of time when I chose to live in a new place for a few months. As I was experiencing this mistreatment, I would also observe how commonplace littering was. I wrote “Backwards God” as a stream of consciousness, connecting the threads between the way women and the Earth are treated. In doing so, I also discovered that the gendering of God is not only a symptom of patriarchy, but it perpetuates a system of male supremacy, as well.
I hope that when audiences watch “Backwards God”, they question the ways in which they ascribe gender to everything, even non-human forms, and how that impacts the way women (and men) are viewed and treated in everyday life.” Natalie Cook, Director of Backwards God.
