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Writer: Kimani Leftridge
The Black American community has produced quite the catalog of legendary cinema over the past 50 years or so. Whether you’re in the mood to reminisce or debate, there will always be endless lists online noting the best there is in Black Hollywood. You may find titles such as Friday, Boyz in the Hood and The Color Purple with plenty of analyses, theories, and reviews following close behind. Despite the Black community’s undying appreciation for cinema, there are still a plethora of unsung classics that have yet to get the attention they deserve.
Released in 1997, Eve’s Bayou was directed and written by Kasi Clemmons. Her directorial debut is told from the point of view of ten-year-old Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett) who lives in an affluent Creole-American community with her younger brother Poe (Jake Smollett) and her older sister Cisely (Meagan Good) in 1960s Louisiana. Their parents are Roz (Lynn Whitfield) and Louis Batiste (Samuel L. Jackson), who is a well-respected doctor in the community and his sister Mozelle (Debbi Morgan) works as a psychic counselor. The Batistes are the descendants of a white Frenchman and an African slave by the name of Eve who cured the Frenchman of cholera through “witchcraft”. He then gifted her the land that became the community known as “Eve’s Bayou”, the film’s main character is named for her.
The principal conflict of the film is introduced immediately and the audience sees Eve witness her father having sex with a family friend, Matty Mereaux during a party. According to his mother, Louis has “...every woman in the parish thinking he [is] the second coming [of Christ]”, and in order to protect this God-like perception of their father, Cisely tries to convince Eve that what she saw was innocent. This interaction kick starts a very tumultuous summer for Batistes, their relationships are put to the ultimate test and deep, dark secrets are brought to light. All comes to a boiling point when Cisely claims that during an attempt to comfort Louis, he tried to molest her. Infuriated, Eve seeks the psychic Elzora to cast a fatal spell on their father. Eve’s wishes eventually come true and Louis is shot and killed by Matty’s husband. After his funeral Eve finds a letter from Louis to Mozelle disputing Cicely's accusations, claiming that it was Cisely who acted inappropriately. When Eve attempts to determine the truth by using her second sight she discovers that Cisely doesn’t really know what happened that night. They both decide to leave the entire summer behind them.
One of the most appealing things about Eve’s Bayou is the great respect in which it discusses voodoo. Instead of the practice being regarded as dark and evil the film depicts it as a religion with a rich history and functioning belief system. There is an overarching conflict between the practice of voodoo and the practice of modern medicine, which causes tension between Louis and Mozelle.
The film also explores the oedipal dynamic between Louis, Roz, and Cisely. There is a competition between Cisely and her mother for the attention of Louis, and the affection Cisely has for her father may be entirely too close to romantic. At a glance, the film’s end is unsatisfying, the audience never finds out the truth about the night of the storm and whatever conflict that arises in the wake of Louis’ death is never addressed. However, after a second look, it becomes clear that the objective of the film was to expose the unreliability of memory and observation and encourage the audience to move on if they are searching to heal from traumatic experiences.
While there is some subtle racial commentary, it is refreshing to see other themes at the forefront of a Black film. A lot of the films intended for Black audiences are centered around Black oppression, and Blackness is very rarely examined without it being in close proximity to whiteness. Here, we see Clemmons opting to explore other concepts such as father-daughter relationships, the impact infidelity has on a family and how great change can shake the foundation of an established unit.
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