Recently set to be preserved at the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as a film that represents important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking, Zeinabu irene Davis’ Compensation premiered back at 1999 at the Atantla Film Festival and would go on to screen at Sundance, TIFF, and more, culminating in a new restoration at New York Film Festival last fall. Following the life of a deaf African American woman in the early 1900s that parallels with another living in the 1990s, Janus Films will now give the landmark film a theatrical release beginning February 21 at Film at Lincoln Center. Ahead of the release, the new trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “A landmark of independent cinema, Compensation is Zeinabu irene Davis’s moving, ambitious portrait of the struggles of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of loving relationships at the bookends of the twentieth century. In extraordinary dual performances, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks play Malindy and Arthur, a couple in 1910 Chicago, as well as Malaika and Nico, a couple living in the same city almost eighty years later. Their stories are deftly interwoven through the creative use of archival photography, an original score featuring ragtime and African percussion, and an editing style both lyrical and tender. Malindy, an industrious, intelligent dressmaker, falls for Arthur, an illiterate migrant from Mississippi, along the shore of Lake Michigan. On the same beach in the present, Malaika, an inspired and resilient graphic artist, softens before a brash yet endearing children’s librarian, Nico. Each pair faces the obstacles of their time as Black Americans, including structural racism and emerging pandemics. Compensation remains a groundbreaking story of inclusion and visibility that bears witness to the social forces and prejudices that stand in the way of love.”
Guided and approved by director Zeinabu irene Davis, this 4K digital restoration was undertaken by the The Criterion Collection, The UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Wimmin With a Mission Productions in conjunction with The Sundance Institute from a scan of the 16mm original camera negative. The 5.1 surround soundtrack was mastered from DAT tapes by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Newly created open captions have been implemented, designed by Alison O’Daniel in collaboration with the Compensation Caption Creative Team.
See the trailer and poster below, along with a NYFF Q&A.
