Spicebush

Spicebush is an experimental feature film that interweaves various fragmentary narratives concerning education, landscapes, gaining and losing a job, and the passage of time. Some parts are clearly symbolic, while others offer more usual forms of drama or documentary. The film contains beautiful and unusual archive material from a variety of sources. Taste and vision combine to form a beautiful unity in this diversity. One returning motif is a little girl in different disguises and different places. According to the film maker, she has the role of the chorus in a classical drama, providing an aloof commentary. In his unique and idiosyncratic way, Everson looks at the often-unknown history of black Americans. A political film, but the director obviously shuns the traditional form of the realistic documentary. Apparently he wants to emphasise aspects that demand a more complex and basically poetic approach. The title of the film is derived from the butterfly of the State of Mississippi, the «spicebush swallowtail». In the film, Mississippi is a place of origin. The butterfly with the beautiful name stands for innovation and starting afresh.

Gertjan Zuilhof, International Film Festival Rotterdam