Erie
Erie • 1h 20m
Directed by Kevin Jerome Everson • 2010 • United States
One of the major works of twenty-first-century American cinema thus far, Kevin Jerome Everson’s ERIE unfolds as a series of arresting single-take shots that capture everyday moments of Black working-class life in communities surrounding Lake Erie, including Buffalo, Cleveland, Niagara Falls, and the filmmaker’s hometown of Mansfield, Ohio. A man struggling determinedly to unlock a car with a wire hanger, a conversation between a group of former General Motors employees, a young girl staring fixedly at a candle—the black-and-white 16 mm vignettes that Everson presents are offered without comment, but they speak subtly to the history of Black migration in the United States and to the present-day reality of an economically declining Rust Belt.
Up Next in Erie
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Company Line
Directed by Kevin Jerome Everson • 2009 • United States
City employees and former residents recount the history of one of the first predominantly Black neighborhoods in Mansfield, Ohio, historically referred to as Company Line. Established during the postwar migration of Blacks from the South to...
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Sound That
Directed by Kevin Jerome Everson • 2014 • United States
Employees of the Cleveland Water Department hunt for leaks in the infrastructure of Cuyahoga County.
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Ears, Nose and Throat
Directed by Kevin Jerome Everson • 2016 • United States
During an ears, nose, and throat examination, Shadeena Brooks recounts a horrible event that she witnessed.
