WePresent Back New York-based filmmaker Andre Muir

When WePresent got behind visual poet and artist Julianknxx for his Barbican exhibition, Chorus in Rememory of Flight last year, we knew the digital platform was onto something special. A master of exploring film through a poetic lens, Julianknxx is truly London's hottest ticket into the experimental film world right now, which means WePresent's next chosen artist to champion, Andre Muir, has a lot to live up to... but thanks to Muir's equal talent in depicting the poetic nature of beauty on screen, we think he'll be just fine.

Muir's latest short film Blue Eyes, produced with the help of WePresent and Muir's own production house SMUGGLER, sets out to dive into the often forgotten about legacies of colonialism and the fraught yet all-too-real consequences that can come from pushing only one beauty narrative. Featuring longterm collaborator Vic Mensa, at the heart of Blue Eyes is an exploration into 'diasporic blackness and generational resolve', so that the proliferation of harmful western-centric standards can be overturned in the hopes of celebrating international beauty and the perseverance of black people everywhere.

The story entrenched within Blue Eyes may not be inspired by Muir's own but instead, relates to that of his auntie Elizabeth who sadly passed away from skin cancer after spending years bleaching her skin. Not a piece of activism, nor is it a work of fiction, Blue Eyes follows a personal story while also destroying the increasingly harmful one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to the global beauty industry.

Blue Eyes will premiere at Screen On The Green in Islington on 22 May at 19:30 BST. For tickets, click here.

To find out more about SMUGGLER, click here.