Close Up

6 November 2025: Compensation

compensation-zeinabu-irene-davis.jpg

Compensation
Zeinabu irene Davis, 1999, 92 min

Introduced by Grace Barber-Plentie

Zeinabu irene Davis’s debut feature follows two Black women, Malindy and Malaika, living in Chicago at opposite ends of the twentieth century. Both characters are portrayed by the Deaf actor Michelle A. Banks, around whom Davis and screenwriter Marc Arthur Chéry crafted the film. Malindy and Malaika’s stories both begin on a beach, where they each encounter a man (played in both cases by John Earl Jelks) who will alter their lives forever. These parallel narratives explore the complexities of love between Deaf and hearing people and the societal pressures that threaten its existence. Set to a score that combines ragtime and African percussion, Compensation draws on silent film techniques and weaves in archival photography to capture pivotal moments in African American history that shape her characters’ fates.


Screening as part of Strange Encounters programme

Calendar

Title

Date

Time

Book

Compensation Thursday 06.11.25 8:15 pm Book