Compensation (Davis, 1990): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.55pm
This screening is part of the Black Debutantes: A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.
Chicago Reader review:
Shot on the cheap in Evanston and Chicago, this 1999 drama by Zeinabu
Irene Davis manages to surmount its budget limitations through the
beauty and symmetry of its narrative. In the early 20th century a deaf
black woman (Michelle A. Banks) struggles to overcome the three strikes
against her, even as she falls for a hearing but illiterate stockyard
worker (John Earl Jelks); interspersed with this tale, and starring the
same actors, is a modern story about another deaf black woman and her
hearing boyfriend. Davis shoots in black-and-white, using archival
photos to establish the turn-of-the-century setting, but they’re so
evocatively deployed that you might forget they’re a money-saving
device. The storytelling is pointedly visual, modeled after the silent
cinema, and the resulting purity of emotion elevates even the modern-day
love story.
JR Jones
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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