Compensation

Laura's Review: B+

On a Lake Michigan beach in the early 1900's, deaf dressmaker Malindy (Michelle A. Banks) will meet and fall for Arthur (John Earl Jelks, "Exhibiting Forgiveness"), an illiterate Mississippian recently arrived in Chicago. Ninety years later in the same place it will take longer for deaf graphic artist Malaika (Banks) to warm to children's librarian Nico, as she doesn't date hearing people. Both romances will face obstacles while exploring the African American experience at the beginning and end of the twentieth century.

This 1999 film from husband and wife team director Zeinabu Irene Davis and writer Marc Arthur Chéry has received a new 4K restoration for its rerelease after being entered into the National Film Registry for Preservation and it is a ground breaking rediscovery, a film I am surprised to have never heard of. Davis was inspired by a student's reaction to Paul Laurence Dunbar's titular poem, equating his tuberculosis with AIDS, something Cherry has woven into the screenplay, but the film's greater achievement is its use of archival photography to weave in specific histories of the past and then-present and silent film techniques which lend themselves to the deaf experience.

A ragtime piano score, elaborate title cards and Pierre Desir's static b&w 16mm cinematography establish Chicago at the turn of the century where we find Malindy on a beach with Tildy Evans (Nirvana Cobb), a friend who writes on Malindy's slate 'My mother says you are smarter than white people.' But the Chicago Ephphetha School for the Deaf where she was taught has been recently segregated, its black students expelled during a decade when the city's black population has doubled. Davis inserts multiple archival stills, Desir's camera panning over black city life and the influx of people as train travel becomes more prevalent. Then a pan of a modern Chicago skyline brings us to that same beach where Malaika performs tai chi as Nico jogs by, then backpedals to get her attention, ragtime piano giving way to African percussion. Silent film title cards are used to introduce Malaika's humorous thought bubbles about this man she has no intention of giving a chance to.

It will be fifteen minutes into the film before we hear any dialogue, Arthur approaching Malindy on the beach and asking her if she would like any of his fresh fish. When he cannot read what Malindy writes on her tablet, she gestures for him to play his mandolin, touching it to feel its vibrations. The romance blossoms despite her mother's (Edith McLoud Armstrong) objections. Arthur learns to sign. The couple goes to see 'The Railroad Porter,' a silent comedy (in the present day, Malaika opts for "The Last Action Hero"). After a brief interlude expounding on Education, Employment and Enlightenment, we will see Malaika accept Nico with 'You're speaking my language!,' encouraging his early attempts at ASL.

Davis will incorporate both song, the charming 'A Negro Love Song' performed at Nico's library as the audience repeats the 'jump back, honey, jump back' refrain, and dance, as Malaika dances with her friend William Young (Christopher Smith), who then performs a modern dance interpretation of Dunbar's poem (Malindy, however, tells Arthur she doesn't like people watching her dance in public). Sound is targeted, separate tracks featuring footsteps and birdsong calling attention to the lack of any additional ambient sound. The same set used for Malindy's home is redressed as Malaika's apartment, furthering the static aesthetic of early silents. In the third act, Davis introduces Sergei Eisenstein’s mathematically timed metric montage featuring overlapping footage of Chicago's L trains with separate footage of Malaika and Nico to represent a disturbing turn in their relationship.

The film loses some of its potency as Nico performs an African ritual, the modern day story not given the historical background afforded by archival stills, but Davis concludes juxtaposing the fates of the film's two couples, contrasting the realities of the past with the present in a moving finale The rerelease of "Compensation" should be celebrated as a major rediscovery of African American art and cinematic history.

Robin's Review: A-

In 1910, deaf seamstress Malindy (Michelle A. Banks) meets an illiterate young man named Arthur (John Earl Jelks) and changes his life. Nearly a century later, deaf Malaika (Banks) meets Nico (Jelks) and falls in love. But, the disease of each time, TB and AIDS, will take their toll in “Compensation.”

As a “guy who loves movies,” I am shocked that “Compensation (1999)” has never even caused a blip on my film-goer radar. I never heard of the movie that was entered, in 2024, into the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” After watching director-writer spouses, Zeinabu Irene Davis and Marc Arthur Chery, collaboration, I wholeheartedly agree.

Malindy sits by a path reading a book when mandolin-playing Arthur walks by. He is smitten with the pretty young woman and, soon, the deaf young woman “listens” to him play. They fall in love and life is good. but Arthur’s cough becomes chronic.
Jump ahead nearly a century and Malaika is practicing tai chi by a pathway where Nico jogs past. The pretty young woman stops him in his tracks. The only problem is she does not date hearing people. Nico, a librarian, is determined to learn ASL (American Sign Language) and, soon, he breaks down her personal barriers. That relationship, though, will feel the pain of the modern disease, HIV/AIDS.

These two, parallel stories are linked by extensive archival photos of the turn of the century and the Great Migration from south to north. Here, the focus of the photographs is primarily Chicago but does an exemplary job, with still pictures, of giving that migration life a flow that is almost animated – but in stills!

“Compensation” is truly a unique film that melds two happy/sad love stories with a dynamic history lesson of black life in America circa 1900. The deft handling of these three parts makes this an experience that will stick with me for a long time to come.

Janus Films rereleased "Compensation" in NY on 2/21/25 with a rollout to follow.  Click here for theater and showtime information.