ARRAY presents “Black Arc: Bending Memory + Vision,” a daylong program offering the freedom to dream through the lens of women filmmakers who bend time, memory and genre to create bold visions on screen. Our 1:30PM showtime features:

COMPENSATION (1999, 1h 32m) | Directed by Zeinabu irene Davis

In this landmark of independent cinema, two Chicago love stories intertwine, one set at the dawn of the 20th century and the other in contemporary times, featuring a deaf woman and a hearing man.

Please note: Other showtimes in the day’s program require a separate ticketed entry. Guests must RSVP and possess a ticket for each screening time to attend each of the screenings.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Zeinabu irene Davis is a director and producer who has received numerous awards for her work with film and video. Born in 1961 in Philadelphia, she received a M.A. in African Studies in 1985 at UCLA, where she also earned her M.F.A. in Film and Television production in 1989. She has received acclaim for her representation of the African American female perspective through a variety of works, which include documentaries, short narratives and experimental films.

Ms. Davis directed the film CYCLES (1989), an experimental short which earned her an awards from the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and the National Black Programming Consortium. Her following works, A PERIOD PIECE (1991), A POWERFUL THANG (1991) and MOTHER OF A RIVER (1995) continued to garner her awards from numerous organizations and festivals. Her latest project, SPIRITS OF REBELLION (2015), is a documentary which gathers fellow L.A. Rebellion filmmakers and explores topics in African American film. Her feature directorial debut, COMPENSATION (1999), was a 2000 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection, hailed as “one of the greatest American independent films ever made” by Richard Brody for The New Yorker and was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 2024.

Ms. Davis has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts for her film work. After holding teaching positions at Antioch College and Northwestern University, Davis moved to teach at UC San Diego, where she currently serves as Professor of Communications.