‘BLACK MOTHER - KHALIK ALLAH’

In the presence of the director. 

Part film, part baptism, Black Mother by director Khalik Allah takes us on a spiritual exploration of 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, heard while watching a visual stream of indelible portraiture. Immersed into 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.

Khalik Allah (1985) is a New York–based photographer and filmmaker whose work has been described as ‘street opera’: simultaneously penetrative, hauntingly beautiful, and visceral. His photography has been acclaimed by the New York Times, TIME Light Box, the New Yorker, the Guardian, the Village Voice, the BBC, and the Boston Globe. Since 2012, Allah has been photographing people who frequent the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem. Shooting film at night with only the light pouring from storefront windows, street lights, cars, and flashing ambulances, he captures raw and intimate portraits of Souls Against the Concrete. In cinema, he directed Field Niggas (2015). Black Mother is his latest long feature film. Khalik Allah has also worked with Wu-Tang Clan and co-directed music videos for Beyoncé.

After the screening Khalik Allah will be in conversation with Lyse Ishimwe.