Black Mother

Black Mother

Khalik Allah / 2018 / 77 minutes / Spine #25

Part film, part baptism, in Black Mother director Khalik Allah brings us on a spiritual journey through Jamaica. Soaking up its bustling metropolises and tranquil countryside, Allah introduces us to 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. Thoroughly immersed between the sacred and profane, Black Mother channels rebellion and reverence into a deeply personal ode informed by Jamaica’s turbulent history but existing in the urgent present.


BLU-RAY/DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

• Interview with Khalik Allah at the Museum of Modern Art, recorded by FifthGod (41 minutes)

• Interview with Khalik Allah at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, recorded by FifthGod (38 minutes)

• Theatrical trailer


→ Purchase the theatrical poster

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  • “One of the Ten Best Movies of the Year. Stunning.”

    — K. Austin Collins, Vanity Fair
  • “One of the Ten Best Films of the Year. An astonishing film… it casts a spell from the start and is impossible to forget afterward.”

    — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox
  • “This is filmmaking as baptism; there’s almost nothing else like it.”

    — K. Austin Collins, Vogue
  • "Gliding from color to black and white, from digital to analog, from grim realism to spiritual ecstasy, the film offers a song of praise to the island of Jamaica and a reckoning with its painful history and hard-pressed present."

    — A.O. Scott, The New York Times
  • "Stunning. Transfomative. Black Mother may be the most fearless film I’ve seen in a decade."

    — Scout Tafoya, Frameland
  • "An undeniably transcendental spiritual awakening in audiovisual form."

    — Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times
  • "Critic’s Pick! Black Mother announces itself as an evocation, invocation and chronicle of birth and life."

    — Glenn Kenny, The New York Times
  • "The best documentary of the year! A combination of city symphony and verité intimacy… Confirms Allah as a dynamic emerging voice in the arena of nonfiction filmmaking.”

    Slant
  • “One of the ten best documentaries of the year.”

    Hyperallergic
  • “Gorgeous. A lush sensory experience. A dreamy portrait of Jamaica, Allah's mother's childhood home.”

    — John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter
  • “One of the most original cinematographers of the time. Allah also edited the film, and his complex sense of audiovisual composition—textural, tonal, thematic, rhythmic, philosophical—is as original and as personal as his cinematography.”

    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker
  • "Black Mother is the beginning of a brand of Black auteurism exhibited by Allah and his contemporaries."

    — Tayler Montague, Reverse Shot
  • "A visionary filmmaker. Dazzling cinematic poetry."

    — Eric Kohn, Indiewire
  • "Black Mother finds Allah doubling down on his established aesthetic to bold, hypnotic ends."

    — Christopher Gray, Slant Magazine
  • "A personal, radical, expansive portrait of Jamaica and its people… what distinguishes the film is Allah’s superb eye and talent for portraiture."

    — Lawrence Garcia, A.V. Club
  • "In just two films, Allah has developed and honed his incomparable style, providing the documentary form itself with one of the most memorable, intense experiences in recent memory."

    — Jason Ooi, The Film Stage
  • "Black Mother is a spiritual project, collapsing the beautiful and the profane."

    — Sierra Pettengill, frieze
Trailer / Clips
Stills