I’ve loved black cinema and black people for as long as I can remember. Over the years we’ve had groundbreaking roles and unforgettable story lines that made us laugh, cry, get mad, or protest. These films didn’t just get us talking but changed American culture.
At 11 years old, Jurnee Smollett made her breakthrough in the title role of 1997’s Eve Bayou. Smollett played Eve Batiste, a little girl growing up in Louisiana who discovers she has the gift of second sight. Eve is a daddy’s girl and her daddy—Louis Batiste (Samuel L. Jackson)—is a well-respected doctor in the community. But Eve’s perception of her father changes when she catches him with his hands in the “coochie jar,” as he cheats on her mother with a family friend at a party one summer night. From then on, her parents’ troubling marriage affects the entire family, leading to a grisly conclusion.
Eve’s Bayou was actress Kasi Lemmons’s debut as writer-director, as well as Jackson’s first try at producing, leading both to win the 1998 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Lemmons has since directed Talk to Me, Black Nativity, and reunited with Jackson for The Caveman’s Valentine. Smollett’s performance was recognized by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Young Artist Association, and the San Diego Film Critics Society. Now 27 and married, you may recognize adult Jurnee as Jess Merriweather in Friday Night Lights and season six of True Blood, and from her films with Tyler Perry, Sharon Stone and Denzel Washington. Her younger brother, Jake Smollett, plays Eve’s brother Poe in the film. The two come from a family full of actors, with Jurnee being the most successful thus far.
Besides the amazing performances, what sticks with me from Eve’s Bayou is the staying power of memory, secrets, and love lost. Intertwined, these themes caused much chaos for the Batiste family, and left me with the question: Do ill memories protect us, shape us, or do they only get in the way of attaining happiness?