ICA Cinema Series: Black Mother

Full theatrical immersion is recommended for this experience, which is part film, part baptism. In Black Mother, Allah brings us on a spiritual exploration through Jamaica. Soaking up its bustling metropolises and tranquil countryside, we meet a succession of vividly rendered souls who call this island home. Their candid testimonies create a polyphonic symphony, set against a visual prayer 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.
 

Director Bio

Khalik Allah is a New York-based photographer and filmmaker whose work has been described as “street opera.” His photography has been acclaimed by the New York Times, TIME Lightbox, 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.” Allah seeks to dispel fears, capture human dignity, and bring clarity to a world that outsiders rarely visit.