L'Alternativa 2018: Black Mother

Khalik Allah. USA, 2018. 77'. Original language, Spanish and English subtitles.

It's time again for the L'Alternativa Independent Film Festival, this year celebrating its 25th anniversary. Tonight it's 'Black Mother', which takes you on a spiritual exploration through Jamaica. Soaking up the island country's bustling metropolises and tranquil countryside, the film introduces you to characters who call Jamaica home. Their testimonies create a polyphonic symphony, and director Khalik Allah captures them and their environments with a visual style and a sense of rhythm entirely his own. Switching between Super 8, 16mm and video, and immersed in the sacred, the profane and everything in between, 'Black Mother' channels rebellion and reverence into a deeply personal ode informed by Jamaica’s turbulent history but existing in the urgent present.