Movie Review: Black Mother

Black Mother *** / *****

Directed by: Khalik Allah.

 

Kahlik Allah’s Black Mother is a film to admire, to ponder, to take in in snippets, and wonder how they fit into the whole. It’s a film that I cannot say is entertaining, or even that I liked it all that much, but it’s one that inspired some deep thought about its subjects in a way that a more traditional film would. Allah’s subject is Jamaica, and the 77-minute film is basically one in which Allah allows various people to talk to the camera about Jamaica – it’s past, it’s present, its future, without editorializing. There’s no music, no voice overs, no real talking heads. It is a documentary – but not in the way most people thing of them. It’s a fascinating film – one that resembles an art installation perhaps more than a traditional film.

 

The film is given a loose structure by returning time and again to a pregnant woman, so that each trimester represents something new. The film shows a lot of underbelly of Jamaica – the side tourists don’t see – and returns again and again to street prostitutes – who have many problems with pimps, etc. It also recounts the history of slavery in the country – how Christianity started there because of slavery, but how they have morphed into something else entirely. The film doesn’t shy away from the darkness – but you could not accuse of it being poverty porn.

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Allah’s strategy here is more complex than it seems. It really is a collage effect he is going for – a mixture of images, and voices, that converge to make up something larger than the sum of its parts. Allah doesn’t give much context for what he shows us – the context comes through the film itself, and what it brings. No one is explaining anything to do – while at the same time, a lot is explained.

 

Black Mother is the type of film that I admire more than I actually like. It takes great precision and planning on Allah’s part to put something like this together in the way he puts it all together. In doing so, he offers perhaps a deeper portrait of Jamaica than another filmmaker could do. That doesn’t necessarily mean the film is entertaining to watch – it requires close attention, a willingness to be confused, and puts pieces together, etc. There are some who will think the film is a masterpiece – some who probably won’t make it through it at all. I’m kind of right in the middle.