Residue

Merawi Gerima's 2020 American film follows a young filmmaker returning to his neighbourhood in Washington to write a script about his childhood. The area has changed beyond recognition; the old neighbours are gone and most of his friends are in prison or dead. The subject is who has the right to tell. Jay wants to tell his neighbourhood but no longer lives there; those who remain see him as someone from outside, and that builds the unease at the centre. Gerima worked on a low budget and largely with a local cast. The form is fragmentary; voices overlap, the image breaks up at times and chronology is not followed. Gentrification is the narrative's direct subject. Who it's for: those who like American independent cinema and formal experiment. Who it's not for: viewers expecting linear narrative; the film is deliberately fragmentary.