Black Mother. 2018. USA. Directed by Khalik Allah. DCP. 75 min.
The second feature by filmmaker and photographer Khalik Allah is a kind of documentary tone poem, a polyphonic work rich in atmosphere and intimate portraiture. Filmed over the course of numerous trips to Jamaica, his mother’s own motherland, Black Mother immerses us in the island’s neighboring worlds of charismatic holy men and equally charismatic sex workers, the sacred and the profane alike. Allah captures them and their environments with a haunting visual style and absorbing sense of rhythm entirely his own, their testimonies flooding the soundtrack with reflections on everyday survival and hopes for the future. Seamlessly switching from Super-8mm to HD video, Black Mother is a spiritual journey through the island nation’s colonial past and into its rapturous present.