I Will Follow (Ava DuVernay, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Carolina Soto. Viewed at the Egyptian, AFI-Fest Hollywood.

Self distributed, first fiction feature by Ava DuVernay hits the AFI festival, and takes the audience by storm. With no budget she managed to get some experienced actors to take part in her reality-based movie, I Will Follow. Salli Richardson-Whitfield, starring as Maye, and Beverly Todd, playing Aunt Amanda, got together with the rest of the crew 2 days of rehearsals, with the script which took DuVernay 32 days to write, based on a personal experience.

When Maye’s aunt Amanda dies in breast cancer, the house where they lived together for over a year in Topanga Canyon has to be cleaned out. During the day, when the movie takes place, visitors comes over to help Maye to sort out aunt Amanda’s stuff. While doing that she gets flashbacks which takes her to memories of her beloved aunt. Pice by piece we get to know Amanda and who she was when she was alive. Maye’s memories are warm and loving about her, Amanda was an bohemian woman with good appetite on life. When Amanda’s daughter comes over to the house, a battle begins over a piece of clothing, about who loved Amanda the most. Maya has to live and let go and take after her late aunt, to live life fully and enjoy every minute.

With warm colors in the house, we get to know the aunt as a warm person. A flashback that keeps on coming back is when the aunt is putting herself makeup on, while Maye is watching. That seem to be a dear memory to her. Maybe because that was at the end of Amanda’s life, and still was happy and lived the life. To get out of the house, which after awhile begins to feel claustrophobic, it cuts to people talking on the phone with Maye. The light was sometimes representing an extreme sunlight, and when it wasn’t, it was plain flat and noticeable. Very studio feeling. Once it was so noticeable it was almost embarrassing to watch. The crisp clear picture felt almost too clear to have a feature drama feeling over it. The cinematography was overall unexciting and the pace slow, and soon I lost my interest in the story and it started to feel more like a soap-opera.

What’s touching about this movie, isn’t the movie itself. In the matter of fact, it’s that it is a personal story she exposes to us, touching to the audience sitting in front of her in person. I give her credit for revealing this for a crowded ´Egyptian theater´,all the other festivals’-, and soon on-movie-theater-audience. Good story, but not sufficient good for the big screen.