In this episode, Mishu sits down with documentary and experimental filmmaker Shawn Antoine II to talk about honoring family memory through film, the ethics of reconstruction, and how to tell stories when the archive runs out. They unpack Shawn’s hybrid documentary The Sight Unseen—a film inspired by a miraculous 1971 event in the Bronx—and how his search through the Schomburg Center for a single lost article turned into a meditation on faith, legacy, and truth.

Shawn shares how he blends oral history with visual invention, why he sees himself as both storyteller and historian, and what documentary can do that no other genre can: give memory back to people who’ve forgotten.

🎥 Shawn Antoine II is a Harlem-born filmmaker whose work explores identity, spirituality, and cultural preservation. His films have screened at Lincoln Center, DOC NYC, and the Pan African Film Festival, and he’s assisted on major projects like The Penguin (HBO Max), The Blacklist (NBC), and Really Love (Netflix). His latest work, The Sight Unseen, merges narrative and documentary techniques to reconstruct a forgotten family story through faith, imagination, and community.

We talk about:
→ Rebuilding family history when the archive is missing
→ The ethics of “constructing the truth” in hybrid films
→ Finding spiritual language in cinematic form
→ Why faith-based storytelling can feel new again
→ Seeing yourself as both filmmaker and historian

Learn more at shawnantoineii.com
Follow Shawn on Instagram: @shawnantoineii

Listen to more episodes at mischiefpod.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @mischiefpod
Produced by @ohhmaybemedia