LGM Film Club, Part 71: Cane River

Last night, I watched Howard Jenkins pioneering Black indie film from 1982, Cane River. This is a view into colorism and class in the Black community of Louisiana. Both characters are 22. The man is a college football star who was drafted by the Jets and then decided, nah, I’m going home to rural Louisiana (this made me laugh very hard). The woman is just starting her college journey in New Orleans. He comes from the Creole Catholic elite. She comes from the Black Protestant rural working class. Problems ensue. It’s not a truly great film, but it’s a very interesting one. Like a lot of early indie films, it relies on the classic time filling strategy of having the characters walking and the like while a song plays. But it’s a perfectly fine movie by any standard and it’s historical importance is very real, as is the subject matter. Quite interesting. Available on Criterion. Here’s the trailer.