Basking in the breathy intensity of Marilyn Monroe and Dusty Springfield songs, Edward Owens’ ode to his mother and her friends whisks cultural and personal memories into a swoony brew of references. Shot in his native Chicago, the film is lovingly attuned to the private reveries of Black womanhood.
Emmeshing domesticity and fantasy into a kaleidoscopic tapestry of unrealized dreams, Edward Owens’ short places his mother front and center as she assumes the grandiose poses of silent movie stars. Materializing amid the lethargic flickering of images is an aching wish for another life of luxury.
An enigmatic precursor to Tomorrow’s Promise, Edward Owens’ first film picks up the aching debris of a lost love, whose embraces are felt in sensual close-ups of body parts. Oscillating between moments of darkness and light, the film grapples with Owens’ own queerness and the fragility of memories.
Throbbing with a lush sensuality, this prismatic short from queer African-American filmmaker Edward Owens filters thwarted desire through a heady amalgam of impressionistic light strobes and chimeric superimpositions. As the night–and the lovers–grow weary, the film acquires a timeless splendor.
