All day and a night

All day and a night written and directed by Joe Robert Cole was released on Netflix May 1, 2020. My visceral reaction was this story is raw ugly and beautiful. This story under different circumstances has happened many times and is going on right now in real life. While serving a life sentence Jahkor Abraham Lincoln(Ashton Sanders) reflects on his life, family, friends, circumstances and system that lead him towards his crime.

“Slavery taught black people how to survive but not how to live. And that’s what we pass onto each other.”

-Jahkor (what was told to him by somebody on the bus on his way to prison)

This stuck out to me because it’s one of the themes and is evident through out the movie. Even though James “J.D.” Lincoln(Jeffrey Wright) Jahkor’s father wanted better for him he couldn’t teach him about life, the only thing he could show him was survival. You can’t teach someone something you don’t know. What a stark contrast to his character Benard in Westworld Jefferey Wright. I enjoyed the story and all of the actors put on great performances but it’s hard for me to watch. I say that because this story hits home in a lot of ways. I’ve known real Big Stunnas(Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and have had friends like TQ(Isaiah John) I relate to a lot of these characters because I’ve been in similar situations. I appreciated Jahkors friendship with Lanmark (Christopher Meyer) that’s another character I related to, I’ve been the Lanmark of the crew. Him and Jahkor both wanted to escape the hood, when Jahkor seen Lanmark in the hospital I think that was the last push that made him commit the crime. I think he seen Lanmark as a beacon of hope, he went to school, graduated, went to the service, “did the right thing” and he’s still cant escape (literally and figuratively)

Black women are the backbones of the family in this film and a lot of the times in real life as well. From his grandmother Tommetta(Regina Taylor) to his mother Delanda(Kelly Jenrette) to his girlfriend/ mother of his child Shantaye(Shakira Ja’nai Paye)

You could feel Jahkors pride being killed by T-Rex(James Earl) when he showed him that video of Shantaye.

Shantaye was resilient it pissed me off when Jahkor cursed at her out and broke up with her over her past transgressions.

This was also a contrast to Shakira’s work with her improv group “Obama’s others daughters”. From personally doing scenes with Shakira back in our AMDA (American musical dramatic academy) days she has always been versatile and an elite actress.

It makes you appreciate it even more when you find out that they weren’t able to do a full cast rehearsal. The director Joe Robert Cole and the actors very much had a creative collaboration with how their scenes and characters went.

In conclusion this story needed to be told because it’s still going on. It reminded me of a Jay-Z song “meet the parents” where a man has a son and doesn’t raise him. Years later he gets into a heated confrontation with a young man and kills him, he doesn’t even realize he just killed his own son. This movie has a lot of themes growth, cycles, escapism, pride, depression, systematic racism and PTSD (post traumatic Slave syndrome)

Joe Robert Cole was also the co-writer of the Black Panther. The world that this movie takes place in births Erik Killmongers and justifies his anger towards T’Challa and Wakanda..

Was he wrong? (Future article)

The last scene with Jahkor teaching his father to grow was so symbolic, maybe together they can become roses in the concrete.

Peace love and light..Thank you for reading this article I leave you with this last question that Jahkor poses in the beginning.

“If you had all day and a night to understand your life, where would you begin?”