New Restoration

“At once an affectionate art-school razz; a study of an offbeat female friendship; a reflection on gender, race, and violence; a murder mystery; and a portrait of Oakland … Smith’s film is invested in acts that countervail destruction—namely, forming ties, whether platonic or romantic, and generating ideas.”

Melissa Anderson, 4Columns

Inspired by LA Rebellion filmmakers like Julie Dash and Zeinabu irene Davis, Cauleen Smith, only 28, spent the summer of ​’95 shooting her first and only narrative feature, a film about sisterhood, grief, and the tools of artistic expression. ​“In cinema, the icon is everything,” Smith has said, and for her film’s protagonist, first-year art-school student Pica (Toby Smith), the challenge is to defend her vision of iconography: an ongoing, untitled, Polaroid-snapshot project, in which a single photograph is made to symbolize each man she meets in her West Oakland community. Her closely guarded affection for friends Malik and Tobi, and the everyday fears accompanying her neighbourhood activities—in the form of threats and news of deaths—are externalized and transformed through the project. Smith’s film fuses material both amateur and virtuosic; in her words, ​“That kind of artistic fragility or instability is the beautiful thing.”

“Masterful … Like many other pioneering Black women filmmakers whose works have been neglected, buried, and unseen, Smith’s directorial debut did not receive the recognition it deserved—until now.”

Matene Toure, Screen Slate
Media