Screenplay Written by Travon Free
Directed by Travon Free & Martin Desmond Roe
**** (four stars)
This film was traumatizing.
In this past week, I, along with the remainder of the nation (and I would assume, considerable sections of the world outside of the United States) awaited the results of the Derek Chauvin trial, the Minneapolis police officer who placing his knee upon the neck of George Floyd for nine minutes and twenty six seconds, resulted in Floyd's murder via asphyxiation. The tragedy, all captured on a cellphone video courtesy of then 17 year old Darnella Frazier, the world all saw the exact same horrifying, inhumane footage, sparking a global level of moral outrage and solidarity within the entire Black Lives Matter movement that had been unlike anything witnessed prior.
And even still, there were no guarantees of that proverbial moral arc of justice swaying in the proper direction, which is entirely due to the history and continuation of the systemic racism contained within policing towards Black people in the United States. We all saw the same thing but that did not mean justice would arrive. And in my mind, if we lived in a world where the likes of George Zimmerman could walk free after pursuing and murdering Trayvon Martin (a child, no less), and the officers who murdered a sleeping Breonna Taylor still had not even been arrested, then I did not harbor much hope in attaining justice for George Floyd.
So...I essentially avoided the trial. Just seeing bits and pieces on the evening news. But, I tried to maintain some sense of ironic detachment, I guess because I honestly do not think I could handle a ruling that would potentially give police, plus armchair warrior racists, a full throated green light to hunt and kill Black people knowing consequences would not exist.
All of these thoughts, plus so many more, weighed upon me heavily as I watched the short film "Two Distant Strangers" from Directors Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, a work that just won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 93rd annual Academy Awards...and deservedly so as this is a ferociously inventive, emotionally devastating experience that merges a dark magical realism, with intensely brutal realities to struck me at the core of my mounting fears and anxieties that are inexcusably connected to living as a Black man in America. And still, it is essential viewing.
Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe's "Two Distant Strangers" stars a most impressive Joey Bada$$ as Carter James, a graphic designer and comic book artist who awakens one beautifully sunlit day in the bed of Perri (Zaria Simone), the morning after their first date. After some flirtatious banter and the clear promise to re-connect, all Carter wishes and intends to do is to return home to his beloved dog dog, Jeter.
After exiting Perri's building, Carter stops for a quick cigarette yet unexpectedly bumps in to a passerby, accidentally spilling coffee upon his shirt. The brief, slightly heated exchange between the miffed passerby and the apologetic Carter catches the attention of Officer Merk (a frightening Andrew Howard), who instantly and wrongly profiles Carter, questions the wad of cash inside of his backpack, the cigarette itself and then, proceeds to illegally search Carter's belongings. As if happening like whiplash, Carter's life descends into nightmare as he is attacked by Officer Merk, wrestled to the ground and choked to death on the sidewalk, while being entirely filmed by a local street merchant upon her cellphone and with his gasps of "I can't breathe!!!" desperately uttered from his lips.
And then...Carter awakens in Perri's bed. Gradually convincing himself that what he had experienced had been nothing but a horrific dream, Carter becomes unsettled as he experiences several moments of deja vu as he prepares to return home to his dog. Yet shockingly, just as before, Carter is encountered by Officer Merk again leading to a confrontation that results in Carter's death.
And once again, Carter reawakens in Perri's bed.
While it may seem that Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe's "Two Distant Strangers," is essentially Harold Ramis' "Groundhog Day" (1993) merged with say, Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station" (2013), the film is by no means an affair that approaches the frivolous or exploitative. In fact, as Free expressed himself in a recent interview on MSNBC's essential "American Voices" with journalist/host Alicia Menendez, the film allows viewers over the running time of 29 minutes, "to experience what it feels like to be Black for 24 hours."
Dear readers, I urge all of you who do indeed choose to watch this film, to not take Travon Free's description as hyperbole or self-congratulatory hype. As I expressed at the outset of this posting, the film was decidedly, and rightfully, traumatic to endure. If the experience of watching this film for you proves itself to being equally upending, then the filmmakers have performed their job exceedingly well by creating a powerfully effective piece of cinema filled end to end with pitch perfect performances, sharp and multilayered storytelling, and a brisk yet fully complete sense of pacing fueled by the work of Editor Alex Odesmith and sumptuously visualized via crisp Cinematography by Jessica Young.
Additionally, and most importantly, Free and Roe have found a disturbingly inventive way to add their undeniably impassioned voices to our continuing national conversation about the status of policing in America, state sanctioned violence that is predominantly leveraged against Black and Brown people continuously without consequence and the desperate pleas from people of color to anyone who will listen as we exclaim that our lives are of equal importance and inherent value of existence as our White counterparts. The sheer empathy contained within every moment of "Two Distant Strangers" is palpable to the point of being primal.
With its hybrid of an almost science fiction level of fantasy and brutal realism, "Two Distant Strangers" ultimately serves as an allegory. The story of Carter James being repeatedly and relentlessly pursued and murdered by Officer Merk, where both figures exist in a vicious, violent time loop, or better yet, a death loop, is fully representative of the status in which Black Americans find ourselves within 21st century America. For every time Carter James finds himself murdered by Officer Merk, regardless of the situations in which both characters find themselves, I found myself thinking of the real world Black people who have murdered, either via the police or by the hands of racist vigilantes, as well as wondering to myself, "Will I be next?"
The beauty of Joey Bada$$'s performance as Carter flows from the ease at which we already feel as if we know him fully within the film's first scenes. He is clearly and instantly warm and affable, intelligent and professional, romantic and sensitive, clever, caring and so obviously in love with his canine companion. Yet, with each murder and subsequent reawakening, Bada$$ conjures up crucial levels of humanity to this character, which makes every time he dies and every time he returns to the start of his day in Perri's bed (plus his reactions to every time he re-opens his eyes) deepen with the pain, sorrow, anger and fear at viewing a life wrongfully ended for no other reason than he was breathing. While Carter James exists as one character, every murder of him took me to another news story about yet another Black person either harassed, profiled, pursued, hunted and/or killed and the effect for me existed beyond being sobering. It felt like sinking and being unable to re-emerge.
To that end, Officer Merk represents not solely a person but the entire systemic, institutional racism that by its design was created for the purpose of Black people not being able to rise, advance and in far too many cases, obtain the means to survive it. He is the ultimate perceived inherent goodness, fairness and justice of White people and the White systems created and upheld, regardless of the content of character and deed. In turn, Carter James, as envisioned through Officer Merk, is the perceived inherent maliciousness of Black people, always suspect and untrustworthy, always up to something nefarious and criminal, forever embodying all that is evil, regardless of reality, rooted in fantasy and in need of being snuffed out.
Andrew Howard's performance is fearsome as well as insidious, as it is a confrontational work that toys with us, in the same way that the character toys with Carter and his perception of how he can possibly navigate and maybe even circumvent this dark time loop in order to make his way back to his dog. Yet, unlike "Groundhog Day," where Bill Murray's character had to grow and discover how his own behavior affected his ultimate outcome, Carter is bested every single time and finds no sense of resolution no matter how he chooses to engage with his fateful day. And as wrenching as the film is, what saves it from being excruciating is the sense of hope contained within Carter's resolve. That despite everything Officer Merk throws at him, regardless of how many times Merk kills him, somehow, someway, he will get back home to his dog. Just as with all Black people because even with all of the tragedy we, as a people, have endured...we remain!
At this time, I feel the need to express myself in a more personal manner as a means of the thought and emotional process I experienced as I watched "Two Distant Strangers." Obviously, I am just one Black man and my individual experience as a Black man in America is not remotely representative of every Black man in the nation. In fact, within the breadth of my life, I count myself to have been extremely lucky to have not been on the receiving end of any levels of racism that approached the dangerous or life threatening.
To that end, I have been a Black face in predominantly White spaces for most of my life and therefore, it is an experience I am more than used to. But since my college years, and especially as I have aged, I became increasingly aware and now am entirely cognizant of those inexplicable uncomfortable feelings that arise when those very feelings are projected or directed towards me. Enduring the stream of micro aggressions, the coded language and attitudes that have grown from undercurrents to the more overt and in turn, I have had to equally endure certain level(s) of code switching and public stifling of my complete self so as not to trigger retribution from the prejudices of others.
What feels most foreign, and now more prevalent than I have ever experienced, is that foreboding sense of feeling unsafe, an elevated sense of danger, that creeping doom due to the overall intensity of the societal tenor regarding people pf color as enabled by over a decade's worth of flame fanning and igniting by right wing media, right wing politicians and unquestionably, the words and actions as delivered by the previous President of the United States.
There are behaviors I engage with today that I never would have thought of even as recently as one year before (or at least pre-COVID-19). A need to stick strictly to familiar locations. Ensuring that I am safe at home before the sun falls for the evening. And most of all, every night when I do return home from work, I send a text to my Mother in Chicago, informing her that I am indeed back at my house safe and sound. I need to impress upon you that this is something I have never done before in my adult life and I am doing this solely because she is as scared for my safety as I am scared for myself. And all I am trying to do after a day's work is to just get back home.
Vibrant and devastating, exhilarating and enraging, superb and sorrowful, Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe's "Two Distant Strangers" deftly plunges into the pulse, tragedy, fight and trauma of the Black Lives Matter movement. Again for those who still proclaim to not understand the meaning of the statement, Black Lives Matter is a cry to a howl to a scream to stop killing us for we are human beings with families, friends, passions and dreams just like anyone else and we deserve to live and be treated and valued as human beings.
That is exactly where I found myself as I viewed this short film.
On Tuesday, April 20, 2021, after 10 hours of deliberation, Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts of second degree murder, third degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. I exhaled a sigh of relief after expecting the very worst because, and please remember, the outcome of this trial, as obvious as it was considering what the entire world saw, was, in actuality, not obvious. The fact that the outcome of the trial was not obvious is disheartening and acutely distressing as the historical lack of consequence has outweighed basic humanity countless times that it is difficult to even believe in a system that is inherently biased against Black people.
But yes, this time, for George Floyd, the right outcome arrived. Yet, true to the form of this nation, we could not even have 24 hours to bask in our relief.. Hell, we could not even have 5 hours before being emotionally pummeled again by the news of 16 year old Ma'Khia Bryant, shot and killed by police in Columbus, Ohio. This is precisely why I have to scoff at the notion that justice was attained for George Floyd despite my relief at the trial outcome. In fact, what I felt the very most was deep sadness. I do not believe that George Floyd ever wished to become a martyr for a global cause for racial justice. All George Floyd wanted was to return home and see his family again.
George Floyd just wanted to go home. And like him and like Carter James, we all just want to go home.
perfect words here (as usual!) this was so hard to watch , but worth it.
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