Film #8 — 1/1 Film by a Black Director
Also filed under: A-One
By C. Ramsay
“He’s an addict. He’s not a criminal, he’s a victim.”
So pleads Rev. Luther Williams in defense of his boss, Dr. Hess Green, an upper class, Black anthropologist who was stabbed by his assistant with a ceremonial dagger that initiates vampiric symptoms. As Hess adapts to his new state he seeks companionship from someone who can identify with him on an experiential level, taking for granted the support of his staff and overlooking the love of his existing family. Broken into chapters, the story amplifies the anticipation we feel as we know we’re building to something but have no idea what. What quickly becomes obvious, however, is that the film is much less reliant on linear narrative than it is the visual renditions of its own philosophies, oscillating from story to metaphor to feeling and back.
Early on the viewer is given a personal moment with George Meda, Dr. Green’s assistant who’s played by director Bill Gunn, as he reads a philosophical letter he’s written that denounces the participation of Black boys in philosophical thinking. He argues in part that it alienates the ability to learn by narrowing the thought process to conventional standards, and that these standards are already unfairly projected onto the Black community and should not be humoured in an effort to assimilate. Though full of contradictions, each part has the potential for some element of truth depending on the approaching perspective, and in its entirety Meda declares that in life’s endless cycling, love is the only thing worthwhile. He then kills himself, and the film uses superimposed and interspliced shots over the course of the rest of its runtime to blend its central philosophy and praxis, recalling different moments in time as one, and synthesizing cultural experiences across time and space.
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