Residue

Merawi Gerima makes his directorial debut with 2020's RESIDUE, and as auspicious as it is, also commits many of the sins typical for a first timer.  But what a tour-de-force - Gerima also wrote, produced, edited, and designed the sound for his film, another version of the old "You Can't Go Home Again" theme.  Remember that Pretenders song "My City Was Gone"?  This time the tale involves a filmmaker named Jay (Obinna Nwachukwu) who returns to his Washington, D.C. 'hood after several years in Los Angeles.  He's back to write a screenplay about his old street and those who were so instrumental in his formative years.  Of course he finds that just about everything has changed, and that he feels alien to the place he once called home. 

Mainly, it's been gentrified.  There are several affluent white folks in the brownstones where Jay's old neighbors used to dwell.  To them, things have been "cleaned up."  We hear snatches of their conversations, often snarky remarks about living across from an old crack house.  Gerima never gives us a good look at these interlopers, often cutting off their heads in the shot.  This is how Jay and likely many of those still around would view them.   They're the true aliens.  

Isn't it always the case? That we feel time should've remained frozen? We're always so surprised when our hometown has a plethora of high rises and old favorite stores and restaurants that have shuttered forever.  Or that the demographics have changed.  

RESIDUE flips the "white experience", a story we hear all too often.  People who complain that "they've moved in." I've experienced it myself, listening to those who cite downed property values and even crime as a result of an expanding minority population.  Not so much a minority anymore.  Gerima is black and proud and his quiet anger makes his film not a burning polemic but a thoughtful essay.  An increasing reality in America.  How so many are pushed to the margins or even out of the picture altogether.   The dispossessed who are viewed as dangerous, not even human.

Gerima tells his story with an abundance of style.   Almost abstract at times.  His sound mix is often distorted, his visuals a smear of light, as if part of a dream.  Jay's present day is invaded by memories, too, and while vivid more than once it is suggested that they are unreliable.  Memories of dear friends who've grown cold or disappeared.  Or incarcerated, as shown in a wonderful scene when Jay visits his bud in a dank prison, but their meeting is shown as a flight of fancy in the fields where they used to frolic as boys.

The style at times overwhelms what the director is trying to say.  He's very eager to impress, and his choices do suit the material, but pulling back a bit might've worked better.  There's also an entirely unnecessary scene which incorporates the film's title.  Freshman film school stuff.  I read that Gerima also didn't have a lot of time or resources, so compromises were inevitable.

But RESIDUE is a very affecting experience, a troubling, mostly clear eyed look at a reality many of use remain tight lipped about.  An old story from a very specific point of view.  Its observations on race are spot on and ultimately devastating.  Seek it out; it was one of 2020's best kept secrets.

P.S. - The film is available on Netflix, unfortunately buried in its menu amongst a sea of mediocrity.