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.
First-Gen Immigrant Filmmakers Are Redefining the American Family Onscreen
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Courtesy Of Vermont International Film Foundation
FAMILY AFFAIR Lawson plays an Angolan teen adjusting to life in Brooklyn in an immigrant story told from three perspectives. Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming and not always easy to sort through. This month, Vermont International Film Foundation streams a program of films directed by African American women from February 19 through 28 as part of the Split/Screen series. I watched
Farewell Amor, a 2020 Sundance Film Festival award winner from first-time feature director Ekwa Msangi. Find the whole program at vtiff.org.
The deal Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), an Angolan cabdriver in Brooklyn, has been working for 17 years toward a reunion with his wife, Esther (Zainab Jah), and daughter, Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), who remained behind in Africa.
‘Farewell Amor’ Is A Moving Tale Of An African Immigrant Family Reconnecting After Years Of Separation We touch base with director Ekwa Msangi on her debut feature being a timely universal account of the Black immigrant experience.
The newest film from director Ekwa Msangi is a striking depiction of the nuanced and complex Black immigrant experience that’s been long overdue to appear on the big screen.
Farewell Amor, Msangi’s debut feature, follows Walter (
The Chi‘s Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), an Angolan immigrant who reunites with his family in the U.S. after a long 17 years apart. His wife, Esther (Zainab Jah), and Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), his teen daughter are virtual strangers to him as they navigate to reconnect in his small, one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment.
Dec. 23, 2020 3:26 pm ET
The streaming medium has become such a torrent that itâs easy to overlook a small, stirring film like âFarewell Amor.â A debut feature, it was written and directed by Ekwa Msangi and is available on digital platforms. âAmorâ is the first word we hear in the first scene, shot in silhouette in a terminal at JFK. Actually we hear it twice, and with great warmth, from a woman, Esther (Zainab Jah), who, arriving from Africa with her school-age daughter, Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), is met by Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), the husband and father they havenât seen since he left for America 17 years before. So why does a movie that begins with a reunion have âfarewellâ in the title? Thereby hangs a delicate tale of pain and persistent hope.
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