Join us for a post screening discussion with filmmaker Zeinabu Davis, in person.

This event will include simultaneous ASL interpretation.  

Compensation is a portrait of the struggles of deaf African Americans and the complexities of loving relationships at the bookends of the 20th century. In extraordinary dual performances, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks play Malindy and Arthur, a couple in 1910 Chicago, as well as Malaika and Nico, a couple living in the same city almost 80 years later. Their stories are deftly interwoven through the creative use of archival photography, an original score featuring ragtime and African percussion, and an editing style both lyrical and tender. Malindy, an industrious, intelligent dressmaker, falls for Arthur, an illiterate migrant from Mississippi, along the shore of Lake Michigan. On the same beach in the present, Malaika, an inspired and resilient graphic artist, softens before Nico, a brash yet endearing children’s librarian. Each pair faces the obstacles of their time as Black Americans. (Zeinabu Davis, 1999, DCP, 92 minutes)

Sign language interpreters are available for this program. Learn more about our accessibility services.