LOS ANGELES--Black American contemporary painter Titus Kaphar decided to dive into the director’s chair for his film “Exhibiting Forgiveness” to help his teenage sons understand the adversities of his upbringing. “What made me make this film was really my sons,” Kaphar told Reuters.
“My kids are at an age now where I can't keep saying to them, ‘when you get a bit older, I'll tell you more. I'll tell you more,’" Kaphar added. "My oldest son is 17. He's going off to college. My second son is 15, so I wanted to find a way to have a conversation with them about the reality of my experience.” The drama, distributed by Roadside Attractions, is loosely based on Kaphar’s life and arrives in theaters on Friday. The movie follows a young married couple, Tarrell, a painter, and Aisha, a singer, portrayed by Andre Holland and Andra Day. The couple and their young son travel to help Tarrell’s mother Joyce, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, move out of her house. Things take an unexpected turn when Tarrell’s formerly abusive drug addict father named La’Ron, played by John Earl Jelks, comes back into Tarrell’s life asking for forgiveness after getting his life together.
Tarrell uses painting to help him process his complex feelings and Aisha uses music to register the changes the family is going through. The key component for Kaphar was to blend his love of painting with the story of hope and healing he wanted to tell. “Andre came to my studio for three months, and I taught him how to paint so that I could shoot the scene exactly how I wanted to, without having to hide his hands here or hide his face here,” Kaphar said. Holland would paint a little and then Kaphar would say “cut,” and then step in wearing his coveralls and fix the paintings to what he envisioned for the film.
“It was this back-and-forth process of painting and directing at the same time, but it was fun because there was this synergy between both of us,” he added. For Holland, the film’s exploration of multi-generational trauma in the Black family is a refreshingly new take that he hasn’t seen in other films. “I've seen a number of movies that look at generational trauma, and particularly as it relates to Black men," Holland said. "But I feel like this one takes a unique take on the idea of in that it doesn't presuppose that complete forgiveness is the only choice." “I think that what Titus is positing here is that forgiveness also can bring with it boundaries, that it’s possible to forgive and also be safe,” he added.
