Compensation by Zeinabu irene Davis
Tickets & Info
Tickets & Info
Part of: Films of the LA Rebellion
Zeinabu irene Davis’s debut feature film, Compensation, takes place across two parallel narratives set in Chicago at the beginning and end of the 20th century. Each tale is a love story between a Deaf woman and a hearing man and their navigations of not only the language barrier between American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English, but also the racism, audism, and other obstacles in their lives. Using filmmaking devices from silent film, Compensation pays homage to the Black filmmakers of the early silent era and makes visible the necessary work of accessibility within filmmaking.
Presented in a new 4K restoration approved by Zeinabu irene Davis with new open captions made in collaboration with artist Alison O’Daniel and the Compensation Caption Creative Team. 1999, DCP, US, in English and ASL with open captions, 95 min.
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Zeinabu irene Davis (b. 1961, Philadelphia) is a filmmaker and professor at the University of California, San Diego. In 1985, she received an MA in African studies at UCLA and earned an MFA in film and television production in 1989. Davis is known as one of the graduates and filmmakers of the LA Rebellion. Davis directed Cycles (1989), an experimental short that earned 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), Mother of a River (1995), and Compensation (1999), garnered prizes from numerous organizations and festivals, including the Gordon Parks Award for Best Director from the Independent Feature Project. Spirits of Rebellion (2015), a documentary gathering fellow LA Rebellion filmmakers to explore topics in African American film, earned Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2017 San Diego Film Awards. She has received numerous grants and fellowships from such sources as the Rockefeller Foundation, American Film Institute, and National Endowment for the Arts.
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Dates & Tickets
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Thu May 21, 2026
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