Cauleen Smith’s capricious, slyly resourceful DIY feature debut, Drylongso, follows photography student Pica (Toby Smith) as she struggles to find her artistic voice in a school whose methodology is disconnected from the harsh realities of late-’90s Oakland. Countless Black men in her neighborhood have been victimized by police and gang violence or mercilessly swallowed by the prison industrial complex, and now there’s a serial killer on the loose targeting Black youth. In the film’s first scene, Pica even witnesses another young woman, Tobi (April Barnett), get beaten up in front of her house and abandoned by her boyfriend (Timothy Braggs).
Pica copes with, and confronts, these various forms of violence by taking Polaroid photos of as many Black men as she can, explaining to Tobi, whom she soon befriends, that it’s because they’re becoming an endangered species. A supportive teacher, Mr. Yamada (Salim Akil...
Pica copes with, and confronts, these various forms of violence by taking Polaroid photos of as many Black men as she can, explaining to Tobi, whom she soon befriends, that it’s because they’re becoming an endangered species. A supportive teacher, Mr. Yamada (Salim Akil...
- 8/30/2023
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
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