Jackson Kizhavana and Jerin Palathinkal, two priests from the Angamaly Archdiocese, had sleepless nights for almost three days as they were fully engrossed in making a video song against racism in the wake of the tragic death of George Floyd, the African-American killed by the police in the U.S.
The collaboration was an arduous task due to the different time zones as Fr. Jackson was in Vienna and Fr. Jerin in Bengaluru. But they persisted and created the song “I can’t breathe”. It had attracted over 4000 views when it was uploaded in the YouTube channel of Fr. Jackson.
Plea before death
The composition is steeped in Blues and Reggae, two music streams popular with the African-American community, and Fr. Jackson has used the falsetto style of rendering to capture the anguished plea of George Floyd before his death: ‘I can’t breathe’! An imaginative tweak of a likely conversation between the victim and his tormentor makes the rest of the song.
“More than registering a protest, the idea was to convey the pain of that man as life was being sucked out of him. We didn’t want to dilute that emotion in anyway and that’s why we resisted the urge to mix the videos with snapshots of global protests over the incident,” said Fr. Jerin.
The video shot in Vienna and Bengaluru, where Fr. Jackson and Fr. Jerin are doing their music courses, using mobile phones was mixed and edited under three days.
Fulfilling
The song has been emotionally fulfilling for its creators, but it seems to have evoked a mixed response among the audience. “Some of our own friends, especially in the IT sector, have been sceptical of sharing the video for fear that many of their ‘white’ clients won’t take it lightly. Shockingly, some people were not even aware of the incident until they watched our video,” said Fr. Jerin.
It wasn’t for the first time the musically-inclined priests were collaborating for a cause. They had made an album as an expression of solidarity with the flood victims when they were part of The XII, a band of priests belonging to the Ernakulam Archdiocese.