Khalik Allah (Field Niggas, T/F 2015) freely alternates between photography and cinema, traveling the streets, creating portraits that tremble with life. In Black Mother, Allah explores his mother’s home country, Jamaica, and invokes its beautiful, resilient, and rebellious spirit. Constructed out of a series of fleeting yet indelible interactions with the country’s residents, Black Mother is a dazzling audio-visual symphony that speaks to the island’s current state: its relationship with pain, outsiders, child rearing, colorism, sex work, nature, God. As he builds relationships with strangers, Allah reconnects with his grandfather William Case, whose wisdom and blessings are woven into the film’s intricate soundscape. Black Mother is rooted in deep-seated, ground-level observation, and yet it also reaches for the sky, offering prayers that rattle the soul with their compassion and conviction. (CB)