A Different Image
“You never see us. We see you. Why can’t you see us?” Alana (Margot Saxton-Federlla) pleads with Vincent (Adisa Anderson), her friend and coworker, who has just taken advantage of her fatigue after a long day to make sexual advances upon her. While Alana has been gazing at photographs of African women to find her own style and cultural and gender expression, Vincent has been looking through Playboy Magazine and at sexualized billboard ads, as well as listening to a male peer who pressures him to demonstrate to Alana that he is a man rather than her friend. Along with filmmaker Julie Dash, Larkin is associated with the second wave of the L.A. Rebellion (aka the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers), which works against Hollywood and Blaxploitation conventions in its representations of Black life. The concerns of the L.A. Rebellion are seen in the plight of Alana and Vincent, who both want to be seen differently—Alana as a woman of African descent and fellow human being, and Vincent as a viable sexual partner. Both inform their sense of self through the media and points of view they choose to entertain. And indeed, the pictures they look at convey the film’s main idea as much as does the film’s narrative: while Alana’s images affirm her sense of self, Vincent’s images function as blinders, instruments of colonial oppression that work to alienate him from women, as well as from his connection to his own cultural heritage. One of Alana’s books, Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, recalls Vincent to himself (or makes him “trip,” according to his male friend) and away from the social pressures of manhood. At the end of the film, Vincent tries a second time to respond to Alana’s request to choose her African name (she rejected his first attempt, as it translated to “beautiful flower”). Gifting her a pair of golden earrings in the shape of an Egyptian goddess, Vincent says, “look—she has braids just like you, she looks just like you. Your African name should be Isis.” Bolstered by a crescendo of African song, Vincent’s words of realization close the film: “I see you.”