Compensation /
A poignant portrait of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of love at both ends of the twentieth century, Zeinabu irene Davis's film is a groundbreaking story of inclusion and visibility. In dual performances, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks play an educated dressmaker and an illi...
| Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Video DVD |
| Language: | English Sign languages |
| Language Notes: | Chiefly silent; some dialogue in English and American Sign Language; optional English SDH and descriptive audio. |
| Published: |
[New York, N.Y.] :
The Criterion Collection,
[2025]
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| Edition: | Director-approved DVD special edition. |
| Series: | Criterion collection ;
1274. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | A poignant portrait of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of love at both ends of the twentieth century, Zeinabu irene Davis's film is a groundbreaking story of inclusion and visibility. In dual performances, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks play an educated dressmaker and an illiterate migrant in 1910s Chicago, and a resilient graphic artist and an endearing librarian living in the same city eight decades later. Employing archival photography, an original score blending ragtime and African percussion, and lyrical editing, Davis deftly intertwines the two couple's stories, in ways both tender and tragic. Compensation is a landmark of American independent cinema that confronts the social forces and prejudices that hinder love. |
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| Item Description: | Originally released as a motion picture in 1999. Inspired by the poem Compensation by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Full screen (1.33:1 aspect ratio). 4K digital restoration. Special features: 2023 audio commentary with director Zeinabu irene Davis, screenwriter Marc Arthur Chéry and director of photography Pierre H.L. Désir Jr. ; Q&As with members of the cast and crew ; Crocodile Conspiracy (1986), a short film by Davis; Pandemic Bread (2023), a short film by Davis with audio commentary featuring Davis and cast and crew members and descriptive audio ; interview with Davis from 2021 ; Photographs and Symbols, a short program about select archival photographs and adinkra and vèvè symbols in the film. Accompanied by booklet with an essay by film scholar Racquel Gates, a director's note, and a conversation between Davis and artist Alison O'Daniel about the process of captioning the film. |
| Physical Description: | 1 videodisc (92 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (31 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm) |
| Format: | DVD, NTSC, region 1; fullscreen; Dolby Digital stereo audio. |
| Production Credits: | Director of photography, Pierre H.L. Désir ; editors, Dana Briscoe, Zeinabu irene Davis ; original piano score, Reginald R. Robinson ; original African instrumental score, Atiba Y. Jali. |
| ISBN: | 9798886073195 |