New Black History: ‘Between The World And Me’ Review

The Changes Between The World And Me was well on its way to being the seminal piece on comprehending modern Blackness when it was a book. What cultural luminary, and the film’s director, Kamilah Forbes has done to further elevate Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 bestseller cannot be oversold. In 2019, Forbes brought Between the World And Me to The Apollo Theatre as a staged reading and talkback. One would think that presentation was its final form. How could Coates’ work be even more aligned with the present state of the Black experience? Easily. Have Kamilah Forbes direct a film adaptation that assesses the present tense of Blackness by noting the past that made it possible. Forbes’ scrapbook aesthetic is not only a cool looking opening, it intentionally connects this work to the greater narrative: addressing the legacy of systemic racism. To be frank, this refined vision of Coates’ book is a devastating and poetic treatise on the particularity of Black oppression in the United States. Part performance piece, part testimonial, and part indictment of white supremacy. All that Black persistence is exist in this film. It’s all done very intimately and in these singular moments with speakers by themselves. It hadn’t even crossed my mind that this was filmed during the pandemic The Mecca There are profound moments where the scrapbook aesthetic blossoms out into a weave of found footage. The use of the archive as an establishing shot of Blackness at large. Which, was beautiful to see since …