Angles: Women Working in Film and Video (2003)

frame, then moving it again—her bed, which is a futon, changes from a couch to a bed as if to say, “Alright! ’m ready! At last I’m gonna get some use!” The bed, too, is personified. It is a celebration of the end of Yasmine’s celibacy. I mean, the bed is ready! You told me one of the things you changed was making Yasmine a single mother. I know that when a child is young, and you are solely responsible, it can be very lonely and demanding. Why is that important to the story? Two reasons. First, so many of my friends are black single mothers, and second, Asma, the woman I wanted to portray Yasmine, is a single mother. She’s not an actress, and I thought it would be easier for her to relate to the character. So her son is played by her son. So while you were working on the script, you had already decided Asma should play Yasmine. Why was she so important to the story? We are old friends, like sisters. We were in Kenya together. But one of the important reasons was that she has dreadlocks. There were very few, if any, examples of woman having their hair styled in dreadlocks in the mainstream when I started working on this film in ’88. Now there seems to be almost an explosion, from music videos to TV commercials. But still, to my knowledge we haven’t seen a black female lead who has long dreadlocks, so this must be a pioneering effort. It was important that this woman be very comfortable with herself, with her hair. The other thing about dreadlocks is that I spend a lot of screen time on Yasmine washing her hair. I personally have had too many people ask me, “Do you wash your hair?” not, “How do you wash your hair?,” which is insulting. So America could be educated about how someone with dreadlocks washes their hair. This is strictly idiosyncratic, so-called cultural politics. Interview first appeared in Angles, Volume 1, Number 2, 1992. © 1992 Ann Filemyr Zeinabu irene Davis continues to make independent films. Her work is passionately concerned with the depiction of women of African descent. She is an associate professor of communication at University of California, San Diego. Her latest work, a dramatic feature film, Compensation, features two inter-related love stories that offer a view of black deaf culture. She frequently writes on African-American cinema and has published in Black Film Review, Cineaste, and Afterimage. Davis has received numerous grants and fellowships from such sources as the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Ann Filemyr is an assistant professor of communications at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Filmography Filmstatement (10 min., 1982). Depiction of a woman’s experience from slavery to the present in Providence, RI. Recreating Black Women’s Media Image (30 min., 1983). A profile of three Black women—a dancer, a poet and a museum director. Crocodile Conspiracy (13 min., 1986), a middle-aged black woman makes the decision to visit communist Cuba. Trumpetistically Clora Bryant (5 min., video documentary, 1989). An engaging portrait of a black woman trumpet player, Clora Bryant, who has been playing for over 45 years. Acquired by the Learning Channel for the “Through Her Eyes Series.” Cycles (17 min., 1989). A psycho-spiritual meditation on an African American woman as she waits. Awards: Best Experimental Film, Big Muddy Film Festival; Best Drama, National Black Programming Consortium; Best of Category, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial Exhibition of the Best American Film and Video. Kneegrays in Russia (5 min., 1990). A portrait of a black female jazz instrumentalist who visits the Soviet Union. A Powerful Thang (57 min., 1991). Story of an AfricanAmerican couple in southwest Ohio as they begin a new stage of intimacy in their relationship. Awards include: Best Narrative, Lawrence Kasdan Award, 30th Ann Arbor Film Festival; Honorable Mention, Best Feature, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. A Period Piece (4 min., rap video, 1991). A satire on “feminine protection” that offers an alternative view of female confidence. Awards: Honorable Mention, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, African American Women and the Arts Festival, Chicago. Mother of the River (28 min., 1995). Based on an old story that recurs throughout Africa and the African diaspora, this film is set in the antebellum South, when a young slave girl meets and is inspired by a mysterious woman of freedom and magic. A presentation of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), it won the following awards: Best Film and Video, Children’s Jury, 12th Annual Chicago International Children’s Fest; Best Short Feature, 6th New England Children’s Film Festival; Best of Category, Chris Award, 34th Columbus International Film Festival; Silver Hugo, Chicago International Film and Video Festival. Compensation (92 min., 1999). Offering a view of black deaf culture, these two inter-related and bittersweet love stories are inspired by a poem from early black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. The film received the following awards: 1999 Reel Black Award for Outstanding Film, Black Film and Video Network; 1999 Gordon Parks Directing Award, Independent Feature Project, New York. VOLUME 4. NUMBERS 2&3 @ 7