Night Catches Us: We Should Embrace It

Recently, I saw a wonderful film called “Night Catches Us” starring Anthony Mackie (“McReele”), Kerry Washington (“Race”), Wendell Pierce (“Brokeology”) and Jamie Hector (both memorably featured in “The Wire”), Amari Cheatom (“Zooman and The Sign” and “The Book of Grace”) and Jamara Griffin, an apparent newcomer--and one to watch.

The film told the story of Marcus (Mackie), an ex-Black Panther, who returns home to his Philly neighborhood, after a self-imposed exile and a jail term, for his father's funeral, only to find himself up against issues he tried to escape. The main issue is the widely held belief that Marcus snitched and caused the death of their Panther brother--husband of Patricia (Washington) and father of Iris (Wilson). Marcus is conflicted, contrite, and somewhat afraid, due mostly to the notion of confronting his angry Panther brother (Hector) who has never forgiven him, and is bent on revenge. Marcus is determined to face his enemies and exorcise his demons.

The story is larger than described above.

There is a great deal of personal conflict, romance, interesting information about their Black Panther family, and so much more. It builds slowly. There are no destructive car chases; no exploding buildings; no gratuitous sex or violence. The story reeled me in as the characters became larger than life. I became invested in the outcome of the relationships between these people who crept into my mind and heart in a scant two hours. There was no formulaic, feel-good ending. This was about real people living their lives and dealing with their issues.

This film is beautifully and lovingly crafted by Tanya Hamilton, a native of Jamaica and Columbia University alumna. One would think that such a high-quality offering would be available at indie theaters around the city. Not so. I travelled far to the one theatre in New York City that was showing this film. 

This brings me to the main reason for my rant.

As a person of color, I know that people of color live interesting lives. We have stories worth telling. We experience successes and failures, heroes and villains, loves and losses. Films and stage plays don’t often reflect that. How often have we been disappointed to realize that the only stories filmmakers and playwrights produce involving people of color are about gang and drug warfare, inner-city violence, or slavery? Our lives encompass so much more. People don't know this because filmmakers usually tell those timeworn stories sprinkled with two-dimensional characters. It's frustrating.

I live in New York City, a veritable Mecca for the arts and entertainment. On nearly any day I can find tickets for a show about the struggles of a white family in America’s heartland; the devastation of a life by the Jewish holocaust; or light fare involving hi-jinx and farce. However, to find a quality show about people of color living real lives is nearly impossible. More often than not, I have had to search off or off-off Broadway. Sometimes, I find nothing. I wonder why.

Some of my friends don’t understand why I seek this connection. It’s simple. I need to see my people, and myself, reflected in the art I embrace--just as others need this. I need to see my people represented on stage and screen as they really are--fully realized characters, not flimsy cardboard cutouts that Hollywood or theatre audiences deem sufficient. When our most talented, prolific writers produce rich stories of our culture, our history, and our lives, they are all but ignored, and those productions are relegated to small theaters on the edge of nowhere. Very few see them or pay attention.

From time to time people of color manage to gain some attention on the stage (”In The Heights” or “Passing Strange” or “The Scottsboro Boys”) and the theater cognoscenti declare that this signifies the era of diversity on the stage has arrived. Do not believe them. Neither has it arrived in Hollywood.

I don't plan on boycotting regular theater productions or Hollywood films; but I plan to be more discerning about how I spend my box office dollars. I plan to support diversity, even if I have to take three trains to behold a beautiful thing like “Night Catches Us”.

Here’s hoping many people catch this one.