Sinners

I don’t want to remember a single part of my life before seeing this masterpiece. EDIT: here’s my more detailed take on this film now that I’ve had some sleep.  This film is a phenomenal commentary on assimilation, and cultural music being used as a coping mechanism and a means to maintain a culture that is being forced into erasure. Each of the cultures referenced (either through the narrative or through the music) have, in some way or another, faced forced assimilation from the English. The KKK is this looming presence that’s playing second fiddle to the supernatural in this film, but their inclusion reminds us of the broader context of the era - it is not safe to not play the role expected of you by the White Man.  Our main vampire does seem to share a kind of kinship with his prey. He is an Irishman, undeniably and unapologetically so. He speaks about how the English language and the Christian religion were forced upon his own people, and how he viewed both begrudgingly. When he recruits his two newest white vampires, both members of the KKK, they sing folk songs of Irish AND Scottish origin (lest it be forgotten that the English colonised us and erased our language and religion too), showcasing the longstanding history of folk music as a means of cultural preservation.  Nevertheless, his goal is abundant clear. He wants to turn the juke joint’s black clientele into members of his homogeneous hive mind, he wants them to assimilate. (An example of his vampiric nature battling against his Irish nature). This is never more clear than when Slack returns as a vampire - the characters in front of the door ask if it’s Slack behind the door, to which he replies “no, it’s Jim Crow”. Jim Crow is, of course, an offensive and exaggerated caricature of a black man created to entertain white people who wish to benefit from black art while mocking those who create it. As Slim states earlier in the film, white people love blues music, but they despise the black people who have created it. Musical genres associated with black culture are time and time again appropriated by white people who are then hailed by the white public as being the greatest musicians of those genres - from Elvis to Eminem, white people have proven that they adore black art the most when it is presented by white artists.  The film ends by rejecting this notion, as Sammie follows his dream of creating true, authentic black music rather than following in his father’s footsteps of preaching a white religion. Sammie makes it out of that barn not only in body, but in the spirit of each of the barn’s inhabitants, who spent their final night alive relishing in their temporary freedom.