We Need to Talk
Sisters Make Most of Opportunity to Reflect on Relationships in Latest Documentary from Janks Morton
We Need to Talk
Click to order via Amazon
Producer & Director: Janks Morton
Actors: Janks Morton; Kenisha Byrd; Stephanie
Brewer; Anika Jackson
Format: NTSC
Region: All Regions
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Studio: iYAGO Entertainment Group
DVD Release Date: July 2, 2010
Run Time: 78 minutes
Film Review by Kam Williams
Excellent (4 stars)
Janks Morton is an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for poignant,
tough-love documentaries about African-American males like
What Black Men
Think and Men to Boys. Now, as the father of an 11 year-old girl poised on
the brink of blossoming into a beautiful, but possibly vulnerable young
woman, he was inspired to make sisters the subject of his latest offering.
So, this go-round, he traveled to the Southside of Chicago where he
interviewed ten female survivors of the battle-of-the-sexes about their
relationships with their dads during their formative years and also with
their boyfriends when they first started dating.
Exhibiting an uncanny knack for both eliciting emotional responses and
capturing African-American pulchritude on camera, Janks posed a series of
probing questions in his trademark fashion. The telling, and frequently
tearful responses of each, whether Kenisha Byrd, Stephanie Brewer, Anika
Jackson, Trudy Martin, Carla O’Neil, Conchita Jamison, Jaime Gill, Soneika
O’Neil, Rhonda Benson or Donna Watkins, generally revealed a wounded soul
profoundly affected by a dysfunctional, early family life, often the product
of an absentee father.
Consequently, we learn that most lost their virginity while still in their
teens, before ending up either having an abortion or becoming a single-mom.
Rhonda, whose dad died when she was 1, relates how she became
sexually-active at 13 at the prompting of a much older guy. Her biggest
regret? The abortion. Her advice to girls coming of age? "Don’t compromise!
You weren’t created to be a playmate for the male gender."
Similarly, Trudy, who was raised by her big sister, says she started
engaging in intercourse at the age of 12. She was impregnated twice by the
custodian at her high school, a philanderer who successfully pressured her
to abort both babies.
Stephanie, by contrast, grew up in a 2-parent household, and says that it
was only "by the grace of God" that she never got pregnant. But she does
confess to a partaking in a confounding pattern of promiscuity as a wayward
teen which caused her to lose another piece of herself with each successive
partner. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, Stephanie today acknowledges
that "Sex is so much more than a physical act," and that one "shouldn’t give
a man access without the covenant of marriage."
Again and again, the narratives here reflect the wisdom of a reformed
man-pleaser who might have benefited from the presence of the father figures
they seemed to crave, instead of the bad boys they instead found, players
willing to serve only as sperm donors.
These sage sisters’ insights range from common sense ("Don’t buy into guys’
sweet talk") to the spiritual ("Find a mentor who will lead you to Christ.")
Yet, the pivotal question left unanswered is whether their pearls of wisdom
are apt to reach the impressionable minds of the next generation and thereby
end the self-destructive cycle.
Another seminal contribution to the documentary genre deserving of a
grassroots movement from a brilliant brother to be reckoned with who remains
devoted to the betterment of the African-American community. The cinematic
equivalent of an intervention.
Also by directored Janks Morton, Jr.
Men II Boys - Groundbreaking Documentary Features Words of Wisdom about
Black Manhood
http://aalbc.com/reviews/men_ii_boys.htm
What Black Men Think
http://aalbc.com/reviews/what_black_men_think.htm