Khalik Allah may not be a name many casual filmgoers know, but it is one they should. The documentarian has shot three films in the last eight years all featuring engrossing topics, and the director’s not slowing down anytime soon. First making waves with 2010’s “Popa Wu: A 5% Story,” followed by his AFI Fest selected film, “Field Niggas,” Allah returns to form with his lyrical documentary “Black Mother.”
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Just from the trailer, Allah’s “Black Mother” portrays a visual poem. Combining the audio of a woman in labor to the glances of a child on a beach and women of Jamaica’s red light district and passersby in between, “Black Mother” offers a riveting, new feeling of Jamaica. At times bleak, “Black Mother” takes audiences from the lush rainforest to the city-scape, resting on faces rather than having them narrate a story.
Still on the rise and earning acclaim with each film, “Black Mother” has earned Allah a 2018 AFI Fest Audience Award for New Auteurs. Along with directing the documentary, Allah serves the film as cinematographer and producer and his striking eye is breathtaking. The film is small but it looks mighty, showcasing a face-to-face confrontation of a place we assume to know.
Here’s the trailer and official synopsis:
Part film, part baptism, in “Black Mother” director Khalik Allah brings us on a spiritual journey through Jamaica. Soaking up its bustling metropolises and tranquil countryside, Allah introduces us to a succession of vividly rendered souls who call this island home. Their candid testimonies create a polyphonic symphony, set against a visual prayer of indelible portraiture. Thoroughly immersed between the sacred and profane, “Black Mother” channels rebellion and reverence into a deeply personal ode informed by Jamaica’s turbulent history but existing in the urgent present.