Cane River

Horace B. Jenkins's 1982 film is set in the Cane River region of Louisiana. Peter and Maria grow close; both families descend from enslaved people, but they do not stand in the same position. That difference is the film's subject. On one side is a light-skinned Creole community that came to own land, on the other darker-skinned families without property; the narrative looks for the division inside the community and makes no one a villain. Jenkins died shortly after the film was finished and it went unseen for many years. A restored print surfaced much later and the film was reassessed. Who it's for: viewers of independent American cinema and of films about division within a community. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a fast narrative; this is a quiet, low-budget production.