First-Gen Immigrant Filmmakers Are Redefining the American Family Onscreen
Films like ‘Minari’ and ‘Farewell Amor’ counter the steely, back-breaking myth of the American dream with the soft, flexible salve of self-determination, self-acceptance, and self-care. A24/IFC/Getty
Westport, Conn. is the 19th richest community in America. It’s where some of my middle school and junior high classmates lived and it’s where my Jamaican grandma cleaned homes for years. I attended countless birthday parties and sleepovers in the same neighborhood where I would accompany my mom’s mom on the job when mine was away at her own. I preoccupied myself with books and schoolwork as she scrubbed, sponged, mopped, and polished interiors that dwarfed our six-person family’s three-bedroom apartment in Bridgeport. All of this was a slice of my so-called American life, my normal.
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At 33, it feels like I’ve known non-monogamy was right for me forever. But as someone who grew up surrounded by monogamy in my family, in my friendships, in my culture, in my media consumption I know that, at some point, I must have learned this about myself. But I can’t remember my younger self even considering entering more than one long-term, intimate relationship at the same time.
While watching director-writer Marion Hill’s feature film
Ma Belle, My Beauty at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival, I felt seen in my desire for a different type of intimate partnered love. Protagonist Bertie (played by Idella Johnson) is a talented Black singer in her late 20s or early 30s living in France but originally from New Orleans. The story follows Bertie as she navigates the remnants of her past polyamorous relationship with her white French now-husband Fred (played by Lucien Guignard) and her white American former lover Lane (played by Hannah Pepper). Bertie’s