Black Mother

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3:05

Black Mother

Released Mar 8, 2019

1h 17m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

97%

Tomatometer

31 Reviews

43%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Filmmaker Khalik Allah becomes immersed in Jamaica's neighboring worlds of charismatic holy men and equally charismatic prostitutes.

Critics Consensus

A transfixing ode to geographic and familial roots, Black Mother pays poetic tribute to a place and culture from a brilliantly unique perspective.

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

This is highly sensuous filmmaking, not only in its vivid close-ups of flesh, food, and the natural world, but in the varied textures of[ Khalik] Allah's cinematography.

Mar 24, 2020

Full Review

Justin Chang

FilmWeek (LAist)

The effect of watching this movie is very emotional and sensual. It's overwhelming on both those levels.

Sep 28, 2019

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Jessica Kiang

Variety

Allah, who directed, shot, edited, and co-scored the film, avoids the literal and the linear to create a beguilingly immersive, multifaceted, vividly sensorial portrait of his mother's homeland, Jamaica.

May 21, 2019

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Dan Schindel

Vague Visages

Even if you do not believe in the soul, the film makes it impossible to deny the soul of a country, that which births us, grooms us, and to which we add as we live and die inside it.

Dec 6, 2023

Full Review

Taylor Baker

Drink in the Movies

Episode 35: Triple Frontier / Climax / Black Mother / Transit

Rated: 40/100

Sep 14, 2021

Full Review

Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

It's as if Allah's subjects are soaking up the power of being seen.

Rated: 3.5/4

Dec 3, 2019

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mike c

I had hoped to learn something about Jamaica. This is not that movie. Not sure what this is. I don't recommend this.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This film made in jamaica struck me as a real waste of celluloid, a missed opportunity to make a film about an underrepresented community. I really wondered what the filmaker's intention was in stringing together lingering shots of the deranged, damaged, deformed, deluded. Yes, there were striking images, close ups of the very old, the insane plus the odd shot of a naked woman, a close up of a woman in labour, a teenage girl but it lacked meaning, commentary. It felt uncomfortable in a pervy voyeuristic way and I was surprised that the filmmaker is half Jamaican and chose such negative, ugly images. An unpleasant frustrating film which seemed not to fit the title Black Mother in anyway, no investigation of women's strength and struggle just shots of ageing hookers wining up and close ups of a vagina about to pop out a baby. Nastiness passing as art house?

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

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Khalik Allah

Director

Khalik Allah

Producer

Leah Giblin

Producer

Khalik Allah

Cinematographer

Khalik Allah

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Black Mother: Trailer 2

3:05

Black Mother: Trailer 1

1:21

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Synopsis

Filmmaker Khalik Allah becomes immersed in Jamaica's neighboring worlds of charismatic holy men and equally charismatic prostitutes.

Director: Khalik Allah
Producer: Khalik Allah, Leah Giblin
Distributor: Grasshopper Film
Production Co: Cinereach
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 8, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 17, 2019
Runtime: 1h 17m

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