Blackness is Everything: Short Film Review
In a powerful tribute to the Black community of the Bay Area, director Alba Roland Mejia combines spoken word poetry, written and performed by Donté Clark, with predominantly black and white photography in his short film Blackness is Everything. The result is a gentle yet moving work of art, stylistically experimental without being at all abrasive – in fact, it is soothing to experience, both visually and audibly.
Clark, the subject of the 2015 documentary Romeo is Bleeding, is based on Oakland, CA, much like Mejia. In an interview with The Creative Independent, he reveals that his call to poetry was derived from the pain and loneliness he felt growing up, which then manifested in the cathartic practice of creating art.
His poetry characterizes Blackness through metonymy; he depicts snapshots of life as representative of his racial identity. At the start of his poem, he lists, “the kick of the shoes, the tilt of the hat “ as minute details of everyday life that embody this notion of Blackness. He then goes on to mix socio-political discourse with empowering language, commenting on capitalistic tendencies to market different ethnicities and heritages, all while embracing his own: “my blood value high as oil do…. You see I’m cut from the cloth that covers all said sins / ancestral tales through the heritage of / amen.” Clark’s work as a spoken-word poet is truly beautiful, simultaneously delicate and powerful.
The film itself perfectly reflects this poetry, employing minimalist, low-resolution imagery to compel the viewer to investigate every detail within the frame. It begins with a blur of gray noise much like that of an empty channel on an old television screen. Quickly, this gray background sparks into the image of two trees, then a serene bay, and we watch the landscape of the Bay Area develop before our eyes. Slowly the sounds are introduced, one at a time: a lone saxophone, seagulls in the distance, and finally Clark’s voice as he begins his poem. It is like blinking awake and letting all your senses adjust to the day before you.
Each shot in the film is its own piece of art, as meticulously structured and developed as a photograph or painting. We travel from the water at the start of the film to quiet neighborhoods – not glamorous or scenic locations, but genuine, lived-in spaces where people exist as their own complex individuals. Interwoven into the flow of the film are old videos in color, presumably of the people depicted along the course of the poem, connecting past to present and establishing the notion of history through its visual language.
Suddenly, as a single skateboarder makes his way down a solitary road during a break in the poem, the black and white cinematography is replaced with color, triggered by the audible snap of a finger offscreen. For a short moment we are able to experience a lonely neighborhood in the Bay Area as it is, finding beauty even in its relatively muted hues, and again bringing history into the present through visuals. Yet, the moment lasts only as long as the shot, for the film returns to black and white immediately afterwards.
As impressive as the photography is, the elements of sound are not to be overlooked either. The saxophone playing throughout the piece is its own character, a lonely presence supported by a carefully selected accompaniment of diegetic noises: the shuffling of shoes on a basketball court, rustling leaves on a tree, the skateboard hitting pavement after an ollie. Yet, through the gentleness of these sounds, a series of snaps breaks through, jolting the viewer to attention. The sound is percussive, and reverberates for a while, lingering in a moment reminiscent of a sudden and fleeting thought or memory.
Every aspect of the film is a testament to the strength of Mejia’s artistic vision as a director, for the short video is both perfectly balanced and immensely poignant despite being only four minutes long. It is a love letter, an expression of respect and pride for Blackness both in the individual and in the Bay Area. Certainly, the combined artistic abilities between Mejia and Clark have proven to be a vastly moving and inspirational force.