Part of Weekend Classics
A landmark of independent cinema, COMPENSATION is Zeinabu irene Davis’s moving, ambitious portrait of the struggles of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of loving relationships at the bookends of the 20th century. In extraordinary dual performances, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks play Malindy and Arthur, a couple in 1910 Chicago, as well as Malaika and Nico, a couple living in the same city almost 80 years later. Their stories are deftly interwoven through the creative use of archival photography, an original score featuring ragtime and African percussion, and an editing style both lyrical and tender. Malindy, an industrious, intelligent dressmaker, falls for Arthur, an illiterate migrant from Mississippi, along the shore of Lake Michigan. On the same beach in the present, Malaika, an inspired and resilient graphic artist, softens before a brash yet endearing children’s librarian, Nico. Each pair faces the obstacles of their time as Black Americans, including structural racism and emerging pandemics. COMPENSATION remains a groundbreaking story of inclusion and visibility that bears witness to the social forces and prejudices that stand in the way of love.
“Zeinabu irene Davis’ masterpiece is a film guided by the desire to represent facets of Black life and history left relatively unexplored… In its return to theaters, we’re reminded that COMPENSATION was far ahead of its time.” —Robert Daniels, rogerebert.com “Zeinabu irene Davis’s 1999 feature, a century-spanning vision of two deaf Black women in Chicago, is among the greatest independent films but has rarely been screened. It took only 25 years from the time that [it] premiered at Sundance.” —Richard Brody, New Yorker “An elegant and presciently inventive work…. The arrival of this restored beauty — which was entered into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry last year) proves that Davis knows how to rebel in her own distinctive way.” —Lisa Kennedy, NYT Critic’s Pick, New York Times
