‘Compensation’ 4K Trailer: Zeinabu irene Davis’ Unreleased Film Is a Decades-Spanning Deaf Romance
Legendary filmmaker Zeinabu irene Davis now has her romance “Compensation” cemented as a piece of historical art.
IndieWire debuts the new 4K restoration of Davis’ 1999 film, which was recently added to the National Film Registry for Preservation in 2024. Davis was famously one of the youngest members of the L.A. Rebellion, a filmmaking movement led in part by Charles Burnett and Julie Dash. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA.
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“Compensation,” which was Davis’ narrative feature directorial debut, has now received a restoration and theatrical distribution from Janus Films 25 years later. Davis was inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s a poem of the same name to make the film. Despite “Compensation” screening at festivals throughout 1999 and 2000, the film was previously unreleased.
“Compensation” stars Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks in dual roles, with the duo playing two different couples separated by an 80-year span. Deaf dressmaker Malindy (Banks) falls for illiterate Mississippi migrant Arthur (Jelks) in 1910s Chicago. Meanwhile, in then-present day ’90s, graphic artist Malaika (Banks) and children’s librarian Nico (Jelks) start a relationship.
The silent feature is filmed in black and white. “Compensation” utilizes archival photography for the 1910s sequences. The 4K restoration was made possible by the Criterion Collection, The UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Wimmin With a Mission Productions, in conjunction with The Sundance Institute. The restoration was made from a scan of the 16mm original camera negative, with the 5.1 surround soundtrack being mastered from DAT tapes by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Newly created open captions have also been implemented, which were designed by Alison O’Daniel in collaboration with the Compensation Caption Creative Team. The 4K restoration was guided and approved by director Davis.
The 4K restoration premiered at the 2024 New York Film Festival. “So much of silent cinema history is lost, and that cinema of African American history could be even more so,” Davis said at the festival. “What I tried to do with ‘Compensation’ was resurrect some of that lost history using archival footage.”
“Compensation” will open on Friday, February 21 at Film at Lincoln Center and will expand to national theaters from Janus Films. Check out the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
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