Film Journal 2023: Black White and the Greys

Film Journal 2023: Black White and the Greys
Directed by Marchelle Thurman and Casey Nelson

One of the essential questions that emerged from the pandemic is, when is too soon to start telling pandemic related stories. We could ask this question in relationship to the tragedy of the virus, or in relationship to the cultural divide that emerged from the worlds global response to the crisis. The uncertainty of this question hasn’t prevented filmmakers from tackling the subject, to be sure, but it has been a bit of an experiment with successes and failures littering the landscape since 2020.

What makes the question a bit more complicated is that pandemic related films could also be defined by films that don’t necessarily tackle the subject but which adapted to the constraints of the time, finding new ways to shoot and develop different projects. In some cases this dictated the kind of stories that could be told, leaning into the singular location shoot and intimate character dramas. Others tried to employ different strategies to tell stories with a larger scope using creative approaches that ensured proper and safe protocols were followed.

I’m actually not sure if this small, indie effort was made during the pandemic, but it certainly does capture the times, keeping the story contained to a household and the unfolding drama of its relationship struggles. This contained setting allows the story to really delve into the nuances of the relational conflict that sits at its core.

Here the two soon question is answered by presenting a time framed story that unfolds over the months of 2020, which captures the full gamut of tensions that emerged from the pandemic, political divides, and racial tensions of black life matters, in a way that transcends time and speaks to the human experience. What’s true about the pandemic, regardless of which side of the cultural divide we find ourselves on, is that it exasperated stuff lying underneath the surface of our relationships and brought it to the surface. Here the film uses the black and white polarization of the times to tease out the grey that is necessary to any reconciliation, understanding and empathy. It also does this within the particular experiences of an interracial couple.

The film opens with a key sequence that surfaces later in the film, a scene that establishes the films central relational conflict- a relationship in crisis both within and because of the times- that the film is going to explore. The film then rewinds to a point where, with the seeds of the perculating issues already planted, we are able to watch things gradually unravel. We know its heading to the point of crisis, but what we are asked to look for is the nuances of the struggle that can help us gain some understanding of it. And as we find this in the different moments of the film, we find expressions of joy and pain. We find the reasons they are together and the reasons they are in crisis, and everything that is at stake within that. It is a deeply felt tension that is held firmly in the grips of the essential process of simply doing life together. Or in the case of the pandemic, being forced to do life together in a lock down.

There is no question this is one of the best and most important pandemic related films that I think have seen in a while. But it would be a mistake to limit it to simply that context. It’s a film that feels astute enough to consider that there are important lessons to learn about ourselves and about our relationships in a post pandemic world, ones that cut across the divide and speak to matters universal. It feels true to how divided households experienced the pandemic, and it captures this without creating heros and villains. It feels even truer to the way we do relationships in life. All of this results in a beautiful concluding scene that cuts through all the noise, unearthing the buried truths of who we are and who we are together that our conflicts tend to cause us to miss.

Wanted to link to the person and review that I found the film through. A worthwhile read from film critic Don Shanahan at every movie has a lesson.

https://everymoviehasalesson.com/blog/2023/10/movie-review-black-white-and-the-greys?fbclid=IwAR2Zu_FQToJ2uFWDn0kBjN_BkqytfaNADukM8tbGqskeis345FGxNh8ofHI