How do they see us? offers a contemplation on the voice of marginalised people, reflecting on what this voice is and what it can change. The film addresses the extent to which marginality should be understood and expressed in opposition to an oppressor, pointing to the insufficiencies of any such straightforward binary by opening up a more complex set of positions.

Instead of seeing the voice of the marginal as singular with a unified aim, Awori shows the contradictions of this expression through a play on Freud’s tripartite understanding of the human psyche.

In the tussle between the Id, the Ego and the Super-Ego, the different responses to the question of How do they see us?, 

and thus more generally, the complexities of living with but trying to avoid definition in relation to the oppressor come to the fore. The condition of always being looked at through someone else’s eyes – what Du Bois called a “double consciousness” – means that central to the struggle of marginalised people is the capacities to build their own modes of recognition for their identities and forms of expression.

In opening up this struggle for voice, the film remains ambivalent about the implications of recognition for marginalised people. By performing both the limits of words and their possibilities, Awori indicates the opportunities for collective experience through shared expression, despite perceived divides.