Cane River
The romance between two African Americans who come from a different class background.
Director:
Horace Jenkins
Cast:
Tommye Myrick, Richard Romain, Carol Sutton
Screenplay:
Horace Jenkins
Screening Date:
Feb 01, 2020
Studio:
Oscilloscope Films
Running Time:
1h 30min
| Excellent | Very Good | Good | Fair | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.9% | 27.2% | 6.0% | 36.3% | 21.2% |
“Blast from the past! An intriguing view of life in a very
different place.”
“Enjoyed listening to Sacha Jenkins speaking about the Creole
community in New Orleans.”
“The film is a wonderful time capsule of its period and holds up
well today. The conflicts depicted in the film are still relevant
and the actors who play Peter and Maria bring a great deal of
charm to their performances.”
“Cinematography was too chaotic.”
“White or black, Creole or Natchitoches, that was the quickest
hand-holding of any boy-meets-girl scene in any movie – ever!”
“Amateurish. Coming of age? Black history? Black rights? Love
story? What was the focus? Didn’t miss any moving vehicle
except a helicopter.”
“It was very interesting seeing her mother’s disappointment in
her daughter’s choices/awareness of differences. Great film for
Black History month. Seemed simple to make but was probably
not easy. I felt like the music was an important as any
dialogue.”
“With the Romeo and Juliet comparison and a nod to WEST
SIDE STORY can’t help thinking that’s why she is named
‘Maria.’”
“Wanted to like this film. Ok first effort. It can only get better.
Good theme.”
“Sometimes you can learn more about filmmaking from a
simple unsophisticated film than from deconstructing a
Scorcese effort. Filmmakers today are so skilled they make
everything look seamless, effortless - the theory of ‘invisible’
editing. All the filmmaking flaws were on ample display here
and I still loved the film for being earnest, well-intentioned. In
fact the primitive filmmaking style is the film’s greatest appeal.”
“One of the worst films I have ever seen. Very amateurish.
Terrible acting. Boring.”
“In one way this is true Hollywood filmmaking in the sense that
politics, race, illegal land grabs and even religion take a back
seat to a final freeze frame happy ending.”
“Yes, scenes go on way too long, some are overcut, some not
cut at all, so no editing accolades. But I did love the music.
Sounded a lot like Lou Rawls and that’s OK with me.”
“Sacha was a wonderful guest, so sorry he lost his father at
such a young age. But he clearly inherited his father’s (and
mother’s) artistic creativity. Please tell him to return with
future film projects.”
“This film had a lot going but, it was a good step back to the
80’s and black indie film making. I only wish Jenkin’s had lived
to have a longer career in future filmmaking.”
“Neo-realism a la Louisiana circa early 1980’s. Mr. Jenkins was
no Rossellini but I was at ease with the barebones filmmaking
style.”
“Watching a retro film like this can give you a perspective into
times gone by or it can be dated and passé. This is the latter. It
was bland and simple that offered little of interest or
significance. It could have explored issues of ethnicity, sexual
behavior, history, generation gaps, etc. It didn’t! Some films
are lost because there is no real reason to preserve them.”
“Sweet story within the film, and a heartwarming story about
making and distributing the the film itself. Also beautiful
music.”
“Only thing right with this film was the editing. Never any
problem following the action. Everything else was amateurish,
acting, the camera work and script.”
“Could see the lyrical elements of the film, with remarkable and
timeless universality. These elements, if you stop to consider
them, rise above the - to be polite - unsophisticated
filmmaking.”
If you'd like to know more about the film...
The tensions between light-skinned, property-owning Creoles and darker skinned individuals that descended from slaves make it difficult for Peter and Maria’s love to prosper. Many free people of color purchased slaves in order to protect them, while others wanted to exploit the slaves’ free labor. This article from an African-American oriented online magazine explains this dilemma:
https://www.theroot.com/did-black-people-own-slaves-1790895436
… while these articles focus on Louisiana and its history with free people of color:
https://lib.lsu.edu/sites/all/files/sc/fpoc/history.html
https://daily.jstor.org/the-free-people-of-color-of-pre-civil-war-new-orleans/
Amaya Allen, an African American student at Vanderbilt University, delivers a Ted Talk about colorism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNNOrM41WyE
The novel, The Forgotten People, by Gary Mills is mentioned several times throughout the film. If you would like to hear what other people who have read the novel think (or are even interested in purchasing a copy for yourself), here is a link to its page on GoodReads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74761.The_Forgotten_People
Here is a link to what users on GoodReads have had to say about the novel, Cane River. It does not have anything to do with the film, however, it deals with the same geographical area:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5167.Cane_River
Soon after the completion of Cane River in 1982, Horace Jenkins died of a heart attack. The film went undistributed for nearly 40 years, however, IndieCollect (an organization that rescues, preserves, and seeks homes for unclaimed independent films) found Cane River’s negative prints in NYC’s DuArt Film laboratory and devoted about one year to restoring the film. If you are interested in learning more about other films restored by IndieCollect, here is a link to their website:
https://www.indiecollect.org/initiatives_film_restoration.shtml
