Drylongso

Cauleen Smith's film follows a young woman taking a photography class in Oakland. Pica fears that Black men will soon be gone and begins taking polaroid portraits of the men she meets in the street; her aim is to leave an archive. The film does not present that fear as exaggeration. The death rate among young Black people in the nineties is the concrete ground of the narrative, and Pica's project is a reaction rather than an artistic idea. Meanwhile young women are being killed in the neighbourhood too, and the film opens onto that second line. Smith shot on sixteen millimetre and most of the cast are non-professional. This is her only narrative feature; it was unavailable for a long time and returned to circulation restored years later. Who it's for: those interested in American independent cinema and the history of Black filmmaking. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a technically polished production; the film keeps its rough texture.