Vertical Entertainment
2020 was an abysmal year for many obvious reasons. However, one light that emerged from last year was the notable number of exceptional debut films by women directors. When cinemas reopened in the late Summer, it was Rose Glass’s brilliantly horrifying Saint Maud that intrigued wary audiences back into the big screen. Natalie Erika James’ haunting portrayal of dementia in her feature debut Relic was another exciting addition to the elevated horror genre while Eva Riley’s Perfect 10, Claire Oakley’s Make Up and Regina King’s One Night in Miami (to name just a few) demonstrated just how varied and individual storytelling can be when we diversify the pool of storytellers.
Another addition to last year’s debut successes is Miss Juneteenth, the feature film of writer and director Channing Godfrey Peoples. The film focuses on Turquoise (Nicole Beharie), a single mother to teenaged daughter Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) and former Miss Juneteenth pageant winner in her local town of Fort Worth, Texas, where Peoples herself grew up. Turquoise works two jobs, one in a local dive where her Miss Juneteenth victory picture hangs slanted on the wall and everybody knows everybody, and the other at a funeral home where the hopeful owner promises to provide her a future of care and financial stability. But Turquoise is still on and off with her ex – Kai’s unreliable father Ronnie (Kendrick Sampson) and instead of thinking about the stability of her own future she pours all of her energy into Kai’s.
Turquoise enters the reluctant Kai into the upcoming Miss Juneteenth pageant- a pageant that is part of the acknowledgement of the emancipation of slaves in Texas in 1865 – two and a half years after the official implementation if the Emancipation Proclamation which outlawed slavery in the United States. The winner of the pageant receives a full college scholarship and a lasting status as an emblem of “respectable” womanhood, both of which Turquoise was forced to surrender when she fell pregnant and had to financially provide for her daughter. Peoples captures a movingly authentic mother-daughter relationship between Turquoise and Kai. Ultimately, they both want the same thing for Kai’s future but differences of opinion – and perhaps even a generational difference regarding how “success” is measured – causes a friction between the two. Kai would rather practice for the school dance troop recruit and enjoy the trivialities of adolescence while Turquoise reinforces “correct” pronunciation in her speech and tells Kai she is “worrying about the wrong thing”. While Kai shows anything but interest for the pageant or the stiff-lipped women who organise it, Turquoise scrapes together money from her tips to buy her daughter what she hopes will be a winning dress.
Vertical Entertainment
The small-town and its characters who Peoples skilfully introduces us to feel nuanced and authentic. As much as the film leans into the struggles of those who are stifled by their socio-economic positions, Miss Juneteenth is also a celebration of Black southern cultures and community. Dr Maya Angelou’s trailblazing poem “Phenomenal Woman” permeates the film. Turquoise performed the poem in her Miss Juneteenth heyday, winning her the crown, and she coaches Kai to perform the same piece. In the film’s most exciting scene, Kai defies the gendered expectations of her womanhood – those which are rooted in classism and racism – and performs a version of the poem that is her own, blending Angelou’s powerful words with her own passion for dance and hip hop. Miss Juneteenth contains countless wonderful moments leading up to this one. As well as drawing attention to prevailing structural and systemic inequalities, the film has an overall warmth to it which makes it a perfect viewing for these bitterly cold winter evenings.
Miss Juneteenth is available to watch in the UK as part of Sky Cinema and Now TV and is available to rent on several VOD platforms.
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