Review: Black Mother
Khalik Allah is a renowned street photographer, often focusing his photography and filmmaking on the street lives of Harlem, New York. He has an odd style of filmmaking, however, which even caught me off guard at first, but it’s a brilliant form of storytelling that makes his films so unique. In Allah’s documentaries, he chooses to focus on the audio first. It’s mostly monologues from the people he wants to focus on for the film, but he asks them questions about their lives as well. He then pieces the audio together and finds subjects to film and photograph, who want to be a part of the film. What makes it so unique, is how honest and raw this technique makes the film. The images and video have more meaning to them, when you hear someone echoing sentiments about their own life, that also can apply to whoever is being shown in the film. Khalik Allah films a beautiful ode to his roots in Jamaica by staying true to this technique in Black Mother.
When describing what Black Mother is about, it is and isn’t difficult at the same time. The film quite literally is about Jamaica, but not in an educational sense, nor to drive a certain theme or agenda. It simply is about Jamaica. Allah divides the film into three different parts; those parts being referred to as ‘trimesters’. In the first trimester, the monologues cover Jamaica’s history; imperialism from Great Britain, the importance of Jamaica’s fruit market and agriculture, and Jamaica’s heavily religious society. The second trimester has people talking about the country’s social issues, including the topics of colorism, black women, young children and families, and young adult women’s prostitution. There are people who also discuss the issue of colonialism, and during these scenes we see footage of market stores that are Japanese owned. The third trimester discusses the importance of religion in Jamaica, and how it is the most important foundation of Jamaican culture.
There’s a lot of symbolism in this film, but there is nothing more powerful than the relation Khalik Allah makes to the country of Jamaica and a woman. It’s not just the fact that he splits the film up into trimesters, but the way that he uses them to formulate the structure of the film. As I mentioned above, it goes from the history and roots of Jamaica, to discussing young women, children and families in society, then to death and religion. Like many people refer to their countries as women, Allah makes that direct correlation and builds Jamaica up to be the “Black Mother”. The people of Jamaica are the children of their black mother, and Allah makes sure to show how beautiful the country is.
While also referring to the country as a mother, Allah continuously shows a pregnant woman and her experiences as she is about to give birth. This works as a build up for the final trimester when we finally see her give birth to her child. Allah shows a bit of the birth, just as in the beginning of the final trimester he shows a bit of the funeral of a beloved man in the community. A child of Jamaica passes away while a new one is welcomed. In this culminating scene, Allah combines the sounds of the mother breathing in labor and footage of the water flowing through different streams. When the child is finally welcomed, we hear the mother saying “Thank you, Jesus” as the baby is swathed and given to the mother.
This film is not only rich in its meaning and symbolism, but also in its cinematography. While all of these topics are being discussed, there are scenes with children singing in schools, prayer at churches, people dancing in the streets, and many more beautiful visuals of the people of Jamaica. These visuals we see are what make Allah’s filmmaking style so unique because these are not actors, nor does he specifically look for these people to be in the film. He allows people to be themselves and do what they feel in front of the camera. Some of them are shy, as can be expected, but this is what makes his style raw and honest. Not everyone is going to be on the camera dancing and singing and laughing comfortably. He makes sure to keep it as real as possible. Allah also makes sure to film the beautiful forests, rivers, streams, and farms of the country. The landscapes tell their own story as well, showing how magnificent and rich the island is in its natural beauties. Just from a visual standpoint, the film is beautiful in displaying Jamaica and its people.
Sometimes documentaries don’t have to be for the purpose of teaching or pushing an agenda. Black Mother is a wonderful, experimental documentary that’s beautifully shot (by Allah himself) and perhaps there should be more of this style in the genre. Black Mother and the rest of Khalik Allah’s films can currently be found on the Criterion Channel’s streaming service, where they also have a short introduction interview with Allah about his filmmaking. His short films can be found on Vimeo and YouTube.
