4.4  I Is a Long Memoried Woman: Film Notes & Viewing Guide
Hum 211 Online  Course Pack - Winter 2010
COCC Home > Cora Agatucci Home > Classes > HUM 211 Home > HUM 211 Course Pack > I Is a Long Memoried Woman

From dih pout of mih mouth
from dih treacherous calm of mih smile
 you can tell
I Is a Long Memoried Woman (1990)
Dir. Frances-Anne Solomon.   Prod. Ingrid Lewis.
LedaSerene/Women Make Movies, 1990.  [Videotape] LedaSerene/Yod Video, 1991.
In English and Creole.  Runtime: 50 min. Audience: High School to Adult.

FILM INTRODUCTION
Out of the abusive conditions of the new world sugar plantations, this  unforgettable 1990 film of the African Diaspora, directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, offers a powerful rendering of female slavery and defiance, survival and strength, in dance-drama performance.  The film presents a young African-Caribbean woman's quest for survival and freedom in evocative dance, griotte-style monologue & song.  Inter-segments present readings and commentary by Grace Nichols, on whose award-winning poetry the film is based. I is a Long-Memoried Woman, published in 1983 (London: Karnak House), was Nichols' first collection of poetry, and won Nichols the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. The film adaptation was a Gold Award winner at the International Film and Television Festival of New York.
[Summary by Cora Agatucci.]

GRACE NICHOLS, author of the poetry collection I is a Long-Memoried Woman, on which the film is based,  "was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950 and grew up in a small country village on the Guyanese coast. She moved to the city with her family when she was eight, an experience central to her first novel, Whole of a Morning Sky (1986), set in 1960s Guyana in the middle of the country's struggle for independence. She worked as a teacher and journalist and, as part of a Diploma in Communications at the University of Guyana, spent time in some of the most remote areas of Guyana, a period that influenced her writings and initiated a strong interest in Guyanese folk tales, Amerindian myths and the South American civilisations of the Aztec and Inca. She has lived in the UK since 1977."  --Peter Forbes.

"I have crossed an ocean
I have lost my tongue
from the root of the old one,
a new one has sprung"
--Grace Nichols: "Epilogue,"
 I Is A Long Memoried Woman (London: Karnak House, 1983)

Grace Nichols "is a firm believer that mythologies and images from western culture have been detrimental to the West Indian, as well as African psyche. In her work, she has attempted to avert these implanted ideas from western societies and form new myths for the Guyanese and many others. A crucial ingredient in her recipe for reclaiming folk heritage comes from the language; she intertwines Creole with standard English to design works of art, which capture the rhythms of speech and the atmosphere of Caribbean culture."  --"Grace Nichols," Long Road Sixth Form College (Cambridge, UK), 2002, 2004.

According to film reviewer Marilyn Payne Phillips, I Is a Long-memoried Woman "is a powerful and moving cinematic experience based on a collection of poems by Grace Nichols. This program by Frances-Anne Solomon is very successful at incorporating creative movement, archival photographs, and special effects to make a statement about the African slave woman's experience in a historical context.  Men, primarily white, freely debased black women and black men were generally impotent - unable if not unwilling to be heroic.  Nichols says, ‘The book is a celebration of the endurance, vitality, and spiritual strength of the black woman. Interview clips with Grace Nichols contrast with “the soaring performances of the actresses and dancers. The choreography demonstrates strength, vitality, and an earthy, tongue-in-cheek angry humor when portraying the white slave owners in elaborate 'white face' and period costumes.”

More Film Reviews on the LedaSerene website: http://www.ledaserene.com/pages/memory1.htm
"Nanny in Europe," by Tony Hall: http://www.ledaserene.com/pages/memory2.htm
"Shit Filth and Videotape," by Martina Attille: http://www.ledaserene.com/pages/memory3.htm
"I Will Enter You...," by Gwyneth Cumberbatch: http://www.ledaserene.com/pages/memory4.htm
Internet Movie Database: I Is a Long Memoried Woman (1990): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0193237/

FRANCES-ANNE SOLOMON, director of the film I IS A LONG MEMORIED WOMAN, "grew up in Trinidad and studied Theatre and English Literature at the University of Toronto, before moving to the UK [United Kingdom], where she worked as a producer, director and writer in film, television and radio for fifteen years before returning to Toronto in 1999. As a producer and executive producer for BBC Films and Single Drama in Great Britain, she was responsible for initiating and executing several strands of films specifically geared towards new writers and directors and those from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including SPEAK LIKE A CHILD directed by John Akomfrah, THE SIXTH HAPPINESS, written by Firdaus Kanga, and directed by Waris Hussein, and FLIGHT by Tanika Gupta. She also directed several films including the powerful semi-autobiographical drama WHAT MY MOTHER TOLD ME; the dance-drama I IS A LONG-MEMORIED WOMAN, which won the Gold Award for TV Performing Arts at the New York Film and TV Festival; and PEGGY SU! A feature set in a Chinese laundry in Liverpool in 1962." Solomon "is the President of Leda Serene Films, an independent production company based in Toronto and South Africa, with a ten-year track record in producing films that represent diversity. She is also one of the project leaders for 'Shifting Images,' a Toronto based initiative of The Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Network."

--Biography courtesy of "Caribbean Tales" (Leda Serene Films):
http://www.ledaserene.com/ctfrms.htm  [accessed Jan. 2002]

Frances-Anne Solomon formed Leda Serene Films in 1990--a film, television and radio production and training company with bases in Canada, the Caribbean and South Africa.  Leda Serene Films "places People of Color in front of and behind the camera, and has made its name as a producer of high quality dramas and documentaries, which celebrate diversity - strong personal stories from different cultural perspectives in the global Diaspora."
--Leda Serene Films: http://www.ledaserene.com 

"It is said that the telling of stories is as vital a human function
as living and breathing because through them,
races and peoples pass on the skills they need in order to survive."
--Ingrid Lewis (qtd. in web "Caribbean Tales")

Caribbean Tales (Leda Serene Films): "Caribbean Tales is a not-for-profit organization (date of incorporation is April 17th, 2001) that aims to produce educational television, film and new media programs reflecting the rich diversity of cultures of the Caribbean Diaspora, for use by both Canadian and Caribbean-based organizations, individuals, and institutions." URL:  http://www.ledaserene.com/ctfrms.htm 

FILM NOTES
Part 1.  The Beginning [The Middle Passage & "Days That Fell"]
 Part 2.  The Vicissitudes [Slavery in New World " Killing Fields" of Sugar Cane]
 Part 3.  The Sorcery [The Obeah Woman Works Magic]
 Part 4.  The Bloodling [Sweet tainted perfect child, swim...]
 Part 5.  The Return [Rebellion, Return, & Closing Song]

Poetry text & page numbers (in parenthesis) are from:
i is a long memoried woman, by Grace Nichols
(London: Caribbean Cultural International Karnak House, 1983),
as adapted in Frances-Anne Solomon's film version of I is a long memoried woman (1990).

["One Continent / To Another" pp. 6-7]

Child of the middle passage…
push
daughter of a vengeful Chi
she came
            into the new world
birth aching her pain
from one continent / to another

moaning

her belly cry sounding the wind

and after fifty years
she hasn’t forgotten
hasn’t forgotten
how she had lain there
in her own blood
lain there in her own shit

bleeding memories in the darkness

how she stumbled onto the shore
how the metals dragged her down
how she thirsted . . . .

[Grace Nichols Reads:]

But being born a woman
she moved again
knew it was the black beginning
though everything said it was
the end

And she went forth with others of her kind
to scythe the earth knowing that bondage
would not fall like poultice from the
children’s forehead

But O she grieved for them
walking beadless
in another land

From the darkness within her
from the dimness of previous
incarnations
                the Congo surfaced
so did Sierra Leone  and the
Gold Coast which she used to tread
searching the horizons for lost
moons . . . . 

[Epigraph p. 4]
From dih pout
of mih mouth
from dih
treacherous
calm of mih
smile
you can tell

I is a long memoried woman

[from "Days that Fell" pp. 11-12]

And yet . . . . . .
And yet . . . . . .

the cutlass in her hand
could not cut through
the days that fell
like bramble

and the destruction that
threatened to choke
within

as she leaned closer to
the earth
seeking some truth
unarmed against the noon

We must hold fast to dreams
We must be patient
from the crouching of those huts
from the sprouting of these fields
We can emerge

all revolutions are rooted in dreams

And yet . . . . . .

And yet

And yet . . . . . .

And yet

[from "Waterpot" p. 14]

The daily going out
and coming in
always being hurried
along

        like like . . . cattle

In the evenings
returning from the fields
she tried hard to walk
like a woman

        she tried very hard

pulling herself erect…

        pulling herself together

holding herself like
royal cane

                    pulling herself together

And the overseer
hurrying them along
in the quickening darkness

And the overseer sneering
them along in the quickening darkness . . . .

[from "Sugar Cane" pp. 32, 34]

There is something
about sugarcane

He isn’t what
he seem –

indifferent hard
and sheathed in blades
his waving arms
is a sign for help

his skin thick
only to protect
the juice inside
himself . . . . 

Slowly
pain-
fully
sugar
cane
pushes
his
knotted
joints
upwards
from
the
earth
slowly
pain-
fully
he
comes
to learn
the
truth
about
himself
the
crimes
committed
in
his
name . . .

[--"Vicissitudes"--]

[from "Ala" p. 23]

Face up
they hold her naked body
to the ground
arms and legs spread-eagle
each tie with rope to stake

then they coat her in sweet
molasses and call us out
to see…..the rebel woman  

who with a pin
stick the soft mould
of her own child’s head

sending the little-new-born
soul winging its way back
to Africa--free

they call us out to see
the fate for all us rebel
women

the slow and painful
picking away of the flesh
by the red and pitiless ants. . . .

[from "Without Song" p. 26]

. . . . Maybe the thing is to forget
to forget and be blind
on this little sugar island . . . . 

[from "I Go to Meet Him" pp. 36-38]

Mornings of dew
and promises

the sound
of bird singing

pink and red
hibiscus kissing

I must devote
sometime to the
joy of living

raising up
from my weeding
of … cane

my eyes
make four
with this man

There ain't no reason to laugh

but
I laughing
in confusion

his hands
soft his words
quick his lips
curling as in
prayer

I nod

I like this man

tonight
I go to meet him
like a flame

I see
the trembling star
of murder
in your palm
black man

bleeding
and raging
to death
inside yourself
. . . .
as you grip the throat of cane

kin of my skin you are

[from "One Dream" p. 39]

[from "Love Act" p. 49; the Obeah Woman]

She enter into his Great House
her see-far looking eyes
unassuming

He fix her with his glassy stare
and feel the thin fire in his blood
awakening

He / his mistresswife / and his
children who take to her breasts
like leeches

He want to tower above her
want to raise her ebony
haunches and when she does
he think she can be trusted
and drinks her in 

And his mistresswife
spending all her days in rings
of vacant smiling
is glad to be rid of the
loveact

But time pass…

Her sorcery cut them
like a whip

She hide her triumph
and slowly stir the hate
of poison in

------[Grace Nichols' Commentary]-----

[from "Night Is Her Robe" p. 47]

Night is her robe
Moon is her element

Quivering and alert
she’s stepping out behind
the fields of sugarcane

She’s stepping out softly
she's stepping out carefully
she's bending
                        she's stalking
she's flitting
                        she's crawling

Quivering and alert
                        Quivering and alert
she's coming to the edge
of her forest island

Now with all the care
of a herbalist
she’s gathering strange weeds
wild root
leaves with the property
both to harm and to heal . . . .

[from "Hi Di Buckras* Hi" pp. 44-45 - *Buckras = island Creole for white people]

Vexation of mind
Vexation of eye
Vexation of spirit
. . . .
Look at the buckra woman
head in parasol floating
of white and pale
being helped from carriages
being lifted over ditches
floating by white and pale
not even looking
not even seeing
the pain and rage and black
despair

[Burst into satirical song:]

O buckra woman she come over de sea
with she round blue eyes from she
cold countree

She walk straight, she head high
she too fenky
she better take care she don’t turn
zombie

            [Chorus:]
            Hi de buckras hi
            Hi de buckras hi
            Hi de buckras hi
            O Hi de buckras hi!

buckra man him come over de sea
with him pluck-chicken skin
from him cold countree

Him palaver him a pray him a dress
fancee but suddenly so him turning
weak and dizzy

            [Chorus]

O buckra woman she come over de sea
with she round blue eyes from she cold
countree

She walk straight she head high
she too fenky
she better take care she don’t turn
zombee

She better take care she don’t
            turn zombee

            [Chorus:]
            Hi de buckras hi
            Hi de buckras hi
            Hi de buckras hi
            O Hi de buckras hi!

[from "Skin-Teeth" p. 50]

Not every skin-teeth
is a smile “Massa”

if you see me smiling
when you pass

if you see me bending
when you ask

Know that I smile
know that I bend
only to rise and strike
again

Know that I smile
know that I bend
only to rise and strike
again

[from "I Coming Back" p. 43]
[Chant:]

I coming back “Massa”
I coming back

            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back

mistress of the underworld

            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back

colour and shape
of all that is evil

            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back

dog howling outside
yuh window

            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back

ball-a-fire
and skinless higue

            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back

hiss in yuh ear
and prick in yuh skin

            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back

bone in yuh throat
and laugh in yuh scull

            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back
            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back
            I coming back “Massa”
            I coming back . . . .

[from "...Like Clamouring Ghosts" p. 41]

Last night I dream a terrible
dream
I dream about the Gods forcing
me to drink blood from my father
skull
forcing me to eat dirt

And when I try to run the chiefs
and elders of the tribe come after
me like clamouring [ghosts]
. . . .
What hope have I if the old ones
turn against me in my dreams . . . .

[from "....Your Blessing" p. 52]

Aie
the very first
time she knew
she was carrying
she wanted to
cry out  

her throat
was a fist
of fear

she wanted
to crush
the weaving
blood mystery

to retch
herself
empty . . . .

------[Grace Nichols' Commentary]-----

[from "In My Name" pp. 56-57]

Heavy with child

belly
an arc
of black moon

I squat over
dry plantain leaves

and command the earth
to receive you

in my name
in my blood

to receive you
my curled bean

my tainted

perfect child

my bastard fruit
my seedling
my sea grape
my strange mulatto
my little bloodling

Let the snake slipping in deep grass
be dumb before you

Let the centipede writhe and shrivel
in its tracks

Let the evil one strangle on his own tongue
even as he sets his eyes upon you
For with my blood
I've cleansed you
And with my tears
I've pooled the River Niger

now my sweet one it is for you to swim

------[Grace Nichols' Commentary]-----

[from "I Will Enter" pp. 60-61]

like a broken flute
your tongue is silent
your eyes speak of an
ancient weariness
I too have known
memory is written
in each crumpled fold
you can still remember
how they pitted gun against
arrow
steel against stillness

Stunned by their demands
for gold
. . . . .

[from "Yemanji" p. 63]

It was here by the riverside
I came upon Yemanji *
Mother of all beings sprawled
upon the rivershore, her long
breasts (insulted by her husband)
oozing milk that lapped and flowed
. . . .

Yemanji
Mother of Shango*
Mother of the long breasts
of milk and sorrow  

Sacred be your river stones  

Yemanji
Mother of Shango
Mother of the long breasts
of milk and sorrow

Sacred be your river stones
Sacred be your river stones

------[Grace Nichols' Commentary]-----

[ Rebellion ]

[from "Omen" p. 75]

I require an omen, a signal
I kyan not work this craft
on my own strength . . .

I kyan not work this craft . . .
on my own strength

I am confused
I lust for guidance
a signal, a small omen
perhaps a bird picking
at my roof . . . .

Is that you Nanny* --
Is that you . . . ?

[from "....And Toussaint"* pp. 76-77]

It has come

It has come

Fireritual
and bloodfeast
a banner of heads on spikes

the black surge

and Toussaint in
the Fort de Jour
dying with cold

It has come

It has come

Firestorm
and bloodrage
a sky of flame

the black surge

------[Grace Nichols' Commentary]-----

[Closing Song]

[from ". . . . . . Your Blessing" pp. 54-55]

So rise you up my daughter
So rise you up my daughter
……
By the drumming of rain
and the running of stream
by the beating of sun
and the flash of steel
by the ripple of flesh
and despairing of dream

Heal, my daughter, heal

By the hot sun’s eye
and the green cane stalk
by the root of blade
and the sweat of mind

Heal . . . .

As we have known victory
As we have known death
As we have known --
neither to rely on happiness
or sorrow for our existence

So rise you up my daughter

So rise you up my daughter

As we have known victory
As we have known death
As we have known --
never to rely on happiness
or sorrow for our existence

So rise you up my daughter

So rise you up my daughter . . . .

Poetry text & page numbers (in parenthesis) are from:
i is a long memoried woman, by Grace Nichols
(London: Caribbean Cultural International Karnak House, 1983)
as adapted in Frances-Anne Solomon's film version of I is a long memoried woman (1990).

Film director Frances-Anne Solomon's Commentary
on HUM 211 student responses to I Is a Long Memoried Woman
posted 5 July 2002, to Hum 211 Discussion #2 Forum:
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/discussions/disc2_frm.htm

Caribbean Tales.org: A People's History of the Caribbean Interactive Web Site.  Leda Serene Films, 2002-2004. 17 August 2004
<http://www.ledaserene.com/ctfrms.html>.

Forbes, Peter. "Grace Nichols." Contemporary Writers of the UK. Film and Literature Dept., British Council.  Booktrust, British Council, 2004.  17 August 2004 <http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth79>.

 "Grace Nichols."  2002.  Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge, UK, 2004.  17 August 2004 <http://www.longroad.ac.uk/accreditation/subject_english/nichols/authors_nicols.htm>.

I Is a Long Memoried Woman. Dir. Frances-Anne Solomon. Prod. Ingrid Lewis.  Perf. Adjoa Andoh and Leonie Forbes.  LedaSerene/Women Make Movies, 1990.  [Videotape.] LedaSerene/Yod Video, 1991.

Nichols, Grace.  i is a long memoried woman.  London: Caribbean Cultural International Karnak House, 1983.

Phillips, Marilyn Payne.  Rev. of "I Is a Long Memoried Woman." ABC-CLIO Video Rating Guide for Libraries on CD-ROM, 1990-1994. Rpt. Univ. of California-Berkeley Media Resources Center Web site. Aug. 1998.  17 August 2004 <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/LongMemoriedWom.html>.

You are here: I Is a Long Memoried Woman Film Notes & Viewing Guide
URL of this webpage: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/CoursePack/womanfilmnotes.htm
Last updated: 02 January 2010

Copyright © 1997 - 2010, Cora Agatucci, Professor of English
Humanities Department, Central Oregon Community College
Please address comments on web contents & links to:
If you experience technical problems with this web, please contact: