Under the Skin – a cross-cultural documentary film about the nature of violence

Under The Skin/ The Exchange is an intercultural self-reflexive, and experimental feature documentary by Shameelah Khan and Olga Pemberton. The documentary combines archive, interviews and personal material collected by the filmmakers in order to critique the notion of documentary itself and the many violences that the form may either challenge or contribute to. In order to create the process-led documentary, the filmmakers traveled to each others' countries to interrogate the "ethics of documentary" by reflecting on a student documentary exchange program they had both been a part of a decade prior. The exchange program was held between three Universities accross South Africa, Finland and Ghana where ten students were grouped together to produce a total of 4 documentaries. Through discussions and personal reflections, both filmmakers travelled to South Africa and Finland respectively, to re-visit the memories of the exchange and the students who were a part of it. The documentary delves deeper into the exploration of the friendship between Shameelah and Olga and the power dynamics between the two filmmakers and their personal journey on navigating conflict, positionality and the authenticity of love, care and shifting realities.