Karen Chapman’s directorial debut, Village Keeper (2024) is the story of a woman’s journey through grief, and trying to survive in the sandwich generation. What happens when the caretaker needs the most care? Village Keeper was one of our highlights we talked about in our Black Films and Filmmakers to check out during TIFF list and it did not disappoint.
The host family for the next 83 minutes is introduced in a rather unique way. As Jean (Oluniké Adeliyi) heads home for what has to be her 2nd job caring for the hygiene of the elderly, we see her son, Tristan (Micah Mensah-Jatoe) as the lookout. He signals to sister, Tamika (Zahra Bentham) to wrap up the mobile salon she’s created (and she’s good!) and to head home. Tamika ties up her loose ends quickly, rescheduling waiting clients on the fly and taking time to flirt with Javion (Ethan Burnett) her crush from the neighborhood).
Finally we meet Granny (Maxine Simpson) who appears agoraphobic but seems to have shame around her missing teeth. She’s a graceful and gorgeous woman who contemplates her missing youth, innocence and what she considers to be beauty. It’s the effect of shame and guilt and plays a very important role in the film. Through it all she manages to keep her spirits about her in the way someone wearied by the world does and she tries to instill a sense of hope into her grandchildren that their mother just can’t seem to muster. She puts on music where Jean now hates the sound of music.
We learn Jean used to be a dancer, specifically for Carnival. Tamika tells Javion this as she does his hair for an upcoming interview. When she talks it’s easy to hear both the admiration and the fear in her voice. Jean has a hardness about her that’s masked as denial. She’s concerned for the safety of her children, but perhaps overly concerned with the idea of shielding them from the trauma that – though she tries to avoid it – she keeps running into head on.
The young family was evicted from their last home and have moved in with Granny who has welcomed them gladly despite her own fledgling finances and lack of room. Jean insists she’ll be out soon, but it’s been months and she still uses a room for storage of a past she refuses to let her children fully see or talk about. At its heart Village Keeper is about community, whether it’s getting to know the new one you’ve joined, maintaining the one you’re in, or creating a new one. In the case of the film all three of these themes come into play with some very interesting caveats to test whether Jean will be successful.
Jean is a dreamer, but mother is also hurt, and pain can manifest itself in so many nuanced ways.
Chapman is an experienced cinematographer and you can see it in her work on the film. There are scenes that are shot uncomfortably close but it’s a clear example of the claustrophobia that Jean deals with. She’s not immune to her stress or unaware that something is wrong, but instead of caring for herself, she tries to care for her “village”. After a long wait on a therapist list there’s finally an opening and she goes, insisting she’s there to vet the therapist for her children. She doesn’t even consider that she may be the one most in need, or even that helping herself first will make her able to help others. No, she’s fallen into the trap before and it doesn’t work, she only wants what’s best for her children.
This could be admirable if she were 85 and on her last legs of life, but she’s a relatively young woman with a lot of life to live. Giving up should not be an option. However, Jean seems stuck between trying to reach an enviable future for her family, and trying to ensure their peace in the present. It’s an understandable take when games of “gunshots or firecrackers” are played with far too much frequency. Where bloody remnants remain behind after a Black or brown body is removed and the ones in charge of cleaning up are not the health department, or the rental company, but the tenants themselves.
Jean especially had made it her mission, donning a kit with cleaning solution, gloves and a bucket she tackles at the stain as though cursing it for ruining her children when in her mind, she was doing a good enough job of that herself. In Jean’s mind, being the “keeper” in Village Keeper appears to be a kind of penance to remove the guilt she feels for the decisions she’s made in her life that have led to her family’s current predicament. However, it’s not just her decisions she mourns, it’s her mothers, her late husband’s and to an extent her children’s.
It’s somber yet not without purpose and it dampens any charging the family has tried to do to the atmosphere in Jean’s absence. Village Keeper is a loving story that’s beautifully layered with an incredible amount of nuance. This is why it’s a shame when the film sort of wraps up a bit too quickly.
There are passages of time, but time does not always heal all wounds. We’re sure Jean has been doing the work and we see how her mother’s influence has rubbed off on her and vice versa, but one important thing about depression and the cycle of abuse is that oftentimes cyclical. It can have interruptions, setbacks and delays. In my opinion, I would have rather the film be set within a day and we see the family working on that foundation so the audience knows for certain that any work done has a chance of sticking. While I was happy at the end, it left me wondering about things to come.
At the same time, that’s hardly a criticism. Director Karen Chapman has a lot of experience behind the camera creating shorts, but Village Keeper is her first feature debut and a strong one at that. The Canadian filmmaker has strong roots in Caribbean culture and always makes sure to celebrate it on film when she can. Village Keeper is no exception and it’s a beautiful and earned moment of joy and pride. Chapman has a deft eye and knows how to use every inch of the frame to her advantage. And she works with her performers to give understated yet lasting and poignant performances. Additionally she’s an artist with Fela.tv, production company that is Black-owned, woman-owned and dedicated to preserving the Culture on-screen and beyond.
It’s a mission that seems dear to Chapman and something that’s woven thoughtfully into her feature debut. Village Keeper is a wonderful film that you won’t be able to stop thinking about for long after you watch, and that’s always the promise of a great filmmaker.
Village Keeper is a selection at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
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