Welcome Our Movie Maven from the San Francisco International Film Festival

May 7, 2008

I am giddy tonight about the election results, but also we have our own Movie Maven/Culture Maven here on Marin Maven. Her name is Geneva Anderson and she is willing to bring us along with her on her trips to various film festivals. I have gone to last years’ San Francisco Asian Film Festival and this years’ Sonoma Film Festival with her and she just always manages to pick really great movies. It is my pleasure to share her with you. 

San Francisco International Film Festival: Medicine for Melancholy
by Geneva Anderson

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival ( www.sffs.org ) April 24-May 8 offers a fabulous selection of some 175 films—dramas, comedies, documentaries, shorts, and more— from every corner of the globe. Up Wednesday, May 7 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas at 3:30 p.m. is the West Coast premiere of Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy ( http://www.strikeanywherefilms.com ) a lovely and nuanced glance at notions of race through the eyes of two very different African Americans who have just spent the night together.

The movie opens on the awkward morning after a one-night stand—the result of a night of wild partying and drinking. It is at breakfast that the couple first exchange names—Micah (Wyatt Cenac) and Angela (Tracey Heggins). Micah comes off as authentic, sweet, and talkative, while Angela dons a cool air of sophistication that she uses to snub him. They seem to have little in common except for being African American and in their mid-twenties. When they agree to share a taxi across town to their respective homes (and part for good), Angela leaves behind her wallet as she darts out of the cab. Micah looks her up on the internet and finds that her real name is Joanne and sets off to return her wallet and try to get to know her better. Reluctantly, Jo agrees to spend some time with him. What unfolds in the next 24 hours is a gradual yet penetrating exploration of each other’s core beliefs and values.

As it turns out, Jo’s experience of being Africa American is academic and communicated through facts about African American culture. Micah thinks and lives on a deeper level. He seems fascinated with various aspects of race and it seems odd to him that Jo doesn’t discuss race with her friends or her white boyfriend. While wandering around town, they visit the Museum of the African American Diaspora and later pass by a Housing Rights Committee meeting where gentrification and the abolishment of rent control in San Francisco are being discussed. What emerges is that Jo and Micah are two very different people who will need to stretch and bend to enter each other’s world. Whether their fragile intimacy will set the stage for a budding romance is up for grabs.

The film dares to explore some issues we all delicately dance around—how cautious we are when it comes to discussions of race and how we grapple with expressing our feelings and experiences when we do enter such discussions. Since San Francisco has the lowest African American population of any large U.S. city, we are living in a kind of bubble world. Medicine for Melancholy reminds us of this.

San Francisco International Film Festival

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival ( www.sffs.org ) April 24-May 8 offers a fabulous selection of some 175 films—dramas, comedies, documentaries, shorts, and more— from every corner of the globe. Up Wednesday, May 7 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas at 3:30 p.m. is the West Coast premiere of Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy ( http://www.strikeanywherefilms.com ) a lovely and nuanced glance at notions of race through the eyes of two very different African Americans who have just spent the night together.

The movie opens on the awkward morning after a one-night stand—the result of a night of wild partying and drinking. It is at breakfast that the couple first exchange names—Micah (Wyatt Cenac) and Angela (Tracey Heggins). Micah comes off as authentic, sweet, and talkative, while Angela dons a cool air of sophistication that she uses to snub him. They seem to have little in common except for being African American and in their mid-twenties. When they agree to share a taxi across town to their respective homes (and part for good), Angela leaves behind her wallet as she darts out of the cab. Micah looks her up on the internet and finds that her real name is Joanne and sets off to return her wallet and try to get to know her better. Reluctantly, Jo agrees to spend some time with him. What unfolds in the next 24 hours is a gradual yet penetrating exploration of each other’s core beliefs and values.

As it turns out, Jo’s experience of being Africa American is academic and communicated through facts about African American culture. Micah thinks and lives on a deeper level. He seems fascinated with various aspects of race and it seems odd to him that Jo doesn’t discuss race with her friends or her white boyfriend. While wandering around town, they visit the Museum of the African American Diaspora and later pass by a Housing Rights Committee meeting where gentrification and the abolishment of rent control in San Francisco are being discussed. What emerges is that Jo and Micah are two very different people who will need to stretch and bend to enter each other’s world. Whether their fragile intimacy will set the stage for a budding romance is up for grabs.

The film dares to explore some issues we all delicately dance around—how cautious we are when it comes to discussions of race and how we grapple with expressing our feelings and experiences when we do enter such discussions. Since San Francisco has the lowest African American population of any large U.S. city, we are living in a kind of bubble world. Medicine for Melancholy reminds us of this.

Geneva Anderson

Posted in Culture Maven, Movie Maven, film