Library Gem: Dayveon... the Realest Casting Ever
I love this movie. It’s country (aka “rural”), black, beautiful, and arguably southern (set in Arkansas). Shout out to Pine Bluff!
Dayveon (2017) is artful from the music and visuals, directed and composed by Amman Abbasi, to the characters and their story. And the casting is possibly the best cast independent film ever - a bunch of black folks with no big names and not a single white person on screen! I believed every single character was a person playing themselves in real life. The authenticity these actors displayed is powerful and tangible. I just have to see them in more films.
The film features Dayveon, played by Devin Blackmon, a young black teenager dealing with the loss of his big brother. How he handles his loss drives the film forward. This movie gives us, the audience, so much to cherish. There is violence. There is gang culture. There is poverty. But the film goes miles beyond an exploration of gang life. At the crux of this story is a tension between boyhood and manhood - an amalgamation of masculinity. This tension is so damn cute, but also provocative and nuanced. The only thing I’ve seen that comes close to this display of black boyhood/manhood is Moonlight (2016), but the kind of tension Chiron struggled with could be considered more contrast than comparison to Dayveon’s. I will say that there is similarity in the two films use of silence/quiet. Barry Jenkins made sure we focused on what we saw and heard, giving us only the most important pieces for our senses. I think Amman Abbasi uses this technique well. Coming in at only 70 minutes, Dayveon is a slow burn that leaves you wanting more time with these characters and this setting.
Are there black women? There’s only 1 black woman in the film. She is Dayveon’s older sister and guardian/caretaker, Kim, played by Chasity Moore, who also felt so real. Thus, I would argue that this film was not about women, but it didn’t completely ignore black women either. This is a film about men and their efforts to be men - whatever that means.
As the heading suggests, this is a local library gem. You can find it at the Urbana Free Library. If you don’t have an account, create one and start watching these DVDs for free. The library also has films available for streaming with Kanopy. Dayveon is one of them!!! What are you waiting for? Go see yourself!
