I Will Follow – A Movie Review

 

 

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I Will Follow – A Movie Review

via The Crunk Feminist Collective » I Will Follow – A Movie Review by Moya Bailey on 3/21/11

My bestie Yolo and I decided to see the movie I Will Follow after hearing rave reviews from friends.

We were a bit taken aback because the movie was well… good!

There were queer characters not caricatures, complex family dynamics, and emotional tenderness. We liked it so much we made a video blog  documenting our reations!

**Spoiler Alerts***

We'll have the transcript up real soon.

We were so delighted with our impromptu review we tweeted it to the Film Maker Ava DuVernay and she actually watched it and had this to say:

"I enjoyed this wildly. @IWillFollowFilm video review by @quirkyblackgirl. "Thou shall not swing." http://tinyurl.com/4pvlxxr @AVADVA

Though it may seem improbable that in a 14 minute clip there were a few things we forgot to mention, its true!

Two things that we wanted to add were that:

• Color(ism) matters- While generally the film had a cast of many colors, or hues of blackness, we did find it interesting that the characters with the most screen time were the lighter ones. No shade (pun intended) to the casting directors but  complexion in film does a lot of implicit signaling and we thought it was something to think about.

• We loved the beautifully untied ending- We almost fell out of our chairs when the film did not end with the typical she-got-a-man-all-is-right-with-the-world ending! Her relationship with her husband remained unresolved; she didn't run off to build a new life with Troy. We were left wondering but assured that life must go on, even in the face of uncertainty. It left us with the possibility that a black woman could be ok, and could carry on without the fictional security that "having a man" supposedly brings. Yolo said it was reminiscent of the final scenes in the Zora Neal Hurston classic Their Eyes Were Watching God

This month at the CFC we've been doing B sides to post from the last year. I'd like to offer this post as a "B" side to my For Colored Girls review as I think this film speaks to the amazing possibilities of black cinema just as Perry's piece was illustrative of so many limitations.

 

 

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