Compensation

New Restoration! Director Zeinabu irene Davis, screenwriter Marc Chery, and actor Christopher Smith will be in person for a Q&A moderated by Cheryl Fabio!

Co-Presented by the San Francisco Black Film Festival!

“Critics Pick! A beautifully woven drama.” — The New York Times

A landmark of independent cinema, Compensation is Zeinabu irene Davis’s moving, ambitious portrait of the struggles of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of loving relationships at the bookends of the twentieth century. In extraordinary dual performances, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks play Malindy and Arthur, a couple in 1910 Chicago, as well as Malaika and Nico, a couple living in the same city almost eighty years later. Their stories are deftly interwoven through the creative use of archival photography, an original score featuring ragtime and African percussion, and an editing style both lyrical and tender. Malindy, an industrious, intelligent dressmaker, falls for Arthur, an illiterate migrant from Mississippi, along the shore of Lake Michigan. On the same beach in the present, Malaika, an inspired and resilient graphic artist, softens before a brash yet endearing children’s librarian, Nico. Each pair faces the obstacles of their time as Black Americans, including structural racism and emerging pandemics. Compensation remains a groundbreaking story of inclusion and visibility that bears witness to the social forces and prejudices that stand in the way of love.

**Please note that this film will have open captions that appear throughout the entire film onscreen. There will also be ASL interpreters present for Q&A post-screening. The Roxie also has ADA accommodations. Please reach out to ada@roxie.com if you have any accessibility questions.**