Compensation

Playful, in love, cursed: two deaf women sit by the lapping waters of Chicago at different times, when they encounter love. The will and courage to face the challenges of communication and establish a language of their own quickly develop as they find themselves caught in a malaise due to the external circumstances of their respective eras … Through the aesthetics of silent film and the use of documentary material, Davis opens a window and speculates on the past of Black deaf women: a marginalised history that relies on the imagination due to a lack of documentation. COMPENSATION allows the poetic language of Dunbar’s poem to speak on both a visual and narrative level!
(Lien May Lucas)