BLACK MOTHER

Khalik Allah focuses on the Caribbean island of Jamaica, the homeland of his mother, and a place he’s visited regularly since his youth. He knows it intimately and embraces its complexity. There isn’t much formal documentary structure, but startling nude images of a pregnant woman delineate the three sections of the film. Using a variety of film formats, and matching sound and image in a hallucinatory manner, Allah digs deep into the Jamaica he knows. The overhang from its horrific colonial past, powerful and sometimes misogynistic sexuality, intense afro-nationalism, and deep-seated communal spirituality, are all part of this island, and in fact feed each other.