1190 Drylongso

[swo17]

Drylongso



A rediscovered treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith's Drylongso embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/romance. Alarmed by the rate at which the young Black men around her are dying, brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) attempts to preserve their existence in Polaroid snapshots, along the way forging a friendship with a woman in an abusive relationship (April Barnett) and experiencing love, heartbreak, and the everyday threat of violence. Capturing the vibrant community spirit of Oakland in the nineties, Smith crafts both a rare cinematic celebration of Black female creativity and a moving elegy for a generation of lost African American men.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Cauleen Smith, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New conversation between Smith and film scholar Michael B. Gillespie
• Short films by Smith, including Chronicles of a Lying Spirit by Kelly Gabron, Songs for Earth & Folk, Lessons in Semaphore, Egungun (Ancestor Can't Find Me), Remote Viewing, and Suffolk, with a new introduction by Smith
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Yasmina Price

[criterionsnob]

Drylongso sounds fascinating. I checked out Smith's short film reportedly used to birth this project into being, Chronicles of a Lying Spirit (by Kelly Gabron). It's a pretty interesting experimental film that overlaps gendered vocals on different volume levels to weave a seething sensation of silenced agency, which is to say nothing about the imagery's resonance in how we write history in racial realms. Well worth checking out online for five minutes- I imagine it'll show up on that disc when it gets announced

Drylongso trailer

[knives]

I’m not terribly surprised this hasn’t even gotten the requisite beaver post as it’s kind of a nothing of a movie. It’s really in the Border Radio space of quality though elevated to a benign mediocrity thanks to the interesting social dimension. The cross dressing friend is the best part of the movie and if it weren’t for me not trusting the film’s handling of drama I’d rather her be the lead as the actress playing Pica is obnoxious with the film’s clumsy attempts at complexity just adding to her annoying qualities.

I am curious to get to the shorts though as it sounds like they may play to her strengths with no more awkward attempts at Spike Lee which the film admits just doesn’t work.