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| Images courtesy of The Cinema Guild |
Before unveiling his first narrative feature film in 2024
with the first-person point-of-view adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of
the same name Nickel Boys, writer-director RaMell Ross first started out
in documentaries. Born in Frankfurt,
Germany and raised in Fairfax, Virginia, Ross briefly lived in Ireland around
2006 where he played professional basketball which was where his curiosity
about filmmaking peaked as he began an apprenticeship as a video editor for
North Star Basketball. Moving to
Greensboro, Alabama in 2009, Ross applied for a position coaching basketball as
well as teaching photography which resulted in numerous collections and art
installations prompted by the Black life experience in the deep American
south.
His efforts in teaching film and
the visual arts eventually led him to creating the experimental as well as
experiential pure cinematic documentary film in 2018 Hale County This
Morning, This Evening, a nonlinear rumination on various Black residents
living in Hale County of Alabama’s ‘Black Belt’. Something of a forecast for what was coming
with Nickel Boys, it is something of a fly on the wall quasi
first-person perspective about the day to day realities of several people
living in Hale County and as such feels somewhere between Ross’ first narrative
feature and the wordless documentary works of Viktor Kossakovsky or Ron Fricke.
Told in a lyrical, elliptical manner including some shots
where Ross lets infant children touch the camera lens, Hale County This
Morning, This Evening shot and edited by Ross himself with three composers
at his disposal Scott Alario, Forest Kelley and Alex Somers who create a warm
and evocative ambient soundscape unfolds like a near-silent tapestry showcasing
numerous lives including teenagers trying to make it in the basketball arena
and a striking shot of sweat hitting the floor amid basketball practice or jump
roping. There’s imagery of horseback
riding, military vehicles storming the area, churchgoing, cheerleading, bicycle
riding and a bevy of powerfully executed time lapse photography shots. Particular images of characters underneath an
impending thunderstorm looming over mobile homes and trailer parks paint a
picture of a community of Black citizens progressing through the uphill battles
of life in their respective journeys to adulthood.
Given a limited theatrical release to little box office
attention but enormous critical adulation, Hale County This Morning, This
Evening went on to garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary
Feature. Though it lost to Free Solo,
the film nevertheless ushered in RaMell Ross as a wholly original visual artist
who says a great deal about the Black experience in only so few words. Some of the film’s visual poetry stems from
long running takes of characters either in the locker room or looking out the
window or jogging in the basketball court, allowing viewers to find within the
wordlessness their own narrative hooks.
Like rifling through a live-action picture book or coffee table book, it
highlights a section of American life that’s otherwise largely overlooked or
ignored. Moreover, it speaks to how
Black people living within the deep south where prejudices originated and
reigned terror on the populace for decades emerged from the ordeal with their
heads up as they reach for the heavens making their mark on the world.
One of the most soulful and evocative documentaries as art
installations ever conceived, invariably paving the way for his next short
documentary film Easter Snap before rolling out his Dolby Atmos
first-person POV feature Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ Hale County This
Morning, This Evening achieves its quiet staying power by simple observing
and leaving much of the contextual and historical heavy lifting to the
viewership. It makes for less of a film
and more of a guided tour through Black life in the deep south.
Though the film wasn’t successful
commercially, it managed to win three awards for Best Documentary including the
Peabody Award. Released independently by
The Cinema Guild, Hale County This Morning, This Evening currently
available on streaming platforms represents not just an important documentary
film but a wholly unique audiovisual exercise which, like Nickel Boys,
challenges our perception and understanding of the Black experience as well as
how to digest and process cinematic nonfiction.
Though only three pictures into his tenure, RaMell Ross has created an
indelible, unique collection of unexpurgated visual art to learn from and
respect.
--Andrew Kotwicki
