In the short film The Water Will Carry Us Home , slaves are thrown off a slave ship and their sprints are saved by mermaids. Something that I noticed before the story began was the hand drawn on a woman’s hand approaching the camera before the screen goes blank. The spiritual eye could mean a transition to higher consciousness and insight. Tesfayes inclusion of the hand with the eye right before the story begins is like a point of relaxation and focus.

After the story is over, after everything is revealed through the journey that the slaves went through and the meeting with the mermaid, there is a blank screen again at the end of the video with the sound of the rooster. What do we know about the sound of the rooster? That it usually means it is time to wake up. This is an awakening! An awakening for the slaves that were left to be forgotten, their lives and stories that were almost forgotten through the concealment of others. Not only was the video a video of awareness of history that has been attempted to be hidden but it’s a transition of the progression towards a different life.