DN:FILM Black Mother
Photographer and filmmaker Khalik Allah’s latest, BLACK MOTHER, takes us on a layered, enthralling audio and visual journey through his mother’s birthplace, Jamaica. Deeply personal, Allah’s doc is another example of a particularly contemporary kind of filmmaking that uses saturated imagery, varied techniques to capture portraits; and out-of-sync narration. Calling “Black Mother” a documentary doesn’t capture the scope of Allah’s ambition; ultimately, it succeeds as a spiritual meditation.
The film’s structure parallels a woman’s pregnancy, the trimesters loosely demarcating the film’s three primary sections. Allah builds a story of Jamaica—history, people, culture—from samples of recorded local and familial voices. The stories are connected to images on screen but not always in strict adherence. The effect is mesmerizing. As each of the sections progresses forward, Allah reaches new levels of depth as well; so he moves from the colonial history of Jamaica, to a homage to his grandfather, to an examination of how spiritual connection binds humanity. Allah’s experience as a street photographer is put to effective use here, as he establishes remarkable connections of trust with his subjects. They all have stories, and he gives them the space and time to tell what’s in their hearts. Then, he weaves together all of them, the images, the interviews. By the end of this pregnancy narrative, a baby has been born; so to has a heartfelt story about humanity’s connections.
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