There are some films I watch that absorb me so completely that it takes a while to re-adjust to my surroundings when they finish. This was one such film. It felt all encompassing. I longed to be, and almost felt I was, among these close-knit people, experiencing with them the rhythm of their sun-kissed daily interactions, living a life both cradled by the forest and looking out to the open sea, the golden thread of ancestral resilience woven through their mores. The film's beautiful and lyrical art direction achieves much of this effect.
Five generations together of the Peazant family; the elders guard the memory of being brought over on ships to the shores of these islands and try to impart the wisdom of their survival to their descendants, some of whom are preparing to start a new life on the mainland. To remember who they are and what resources they have to draw on in the face of the trials they will inevitably face. The younger generations struggle with these ancestral scars, and new wounds of their own, and wonder about how they will forge their own lives, whether they stay on the island or 'go north'.
I am a member of the African diaspora myself, my recent ancestors were born in the Caribbean and came to the UK to make a new life. I felt a moving resonance in Julie Dash's portrayal - the accents in particular I found quite familiar! - but also a dull ache of something lost or distant. Perhaps this is a thread that links me back to this turn of the century family on the other side of the ocean.
This is a deeply affecting, beautifully shot and uniquely lyrical film that was frequently breathtaking. I am deeply impressed by this film as a piece of art and creativity from the minds of the director and her team, and as a window both back in time and into the lives of a community I might not otherwise have known much about. That this film was the first film by an African American woman to ever be released in the United States makes it even more remarkable. I highly recommend this film experience.
Five generations together of the Peazant family; the elders guard the memory of being brought over on ships to the shores of these islands and try to impart the wisdom of their survival to their descendants, some of whom are preparing to start a new life on the mainland. To remember who they are and what resources they have to draw on in the face of the trials they will inevitably face. The younger generations struggle with these ancestral scars, and new wounds of their own, and wonder about how they will forge their own lives, whether they stay on the island or 'go north'.
I am a member of the African diaspora myself, my recent ancestors were born in the Caribbean and came to the UK to make a new life. I felt a moving resonance in Julie Dash's portrayal - the accents in particular I found quite familiar! - but also a dull ache of something lost or distant. Perhaps this is a thread that links me back to this turn of the century family on the other side of the ocean.
This is a deeply affecting, beautifully shot and uniquely lyrical film that was frequently breathtaking. I am deeply impressed by this film as a piece of art and creativity from the minds of the director and her team, and as a window both back in time and into the lives of a community I might not otherwise have known much about. That this film was the first film by an African American woman to ever be released in the United States makes it even more remarkable. I highly recommend this film experience.