The question that was most interesting to me was what kind of work does child-like wonder, imagination, and magic do in/for the film Guava Island? And specifically what kind of work does it do around the way the text imagine race, blackness, and freedom? I think that this question is interesting and could inspire a lot of important dialogue due to the nature of the form as imagination and wonder are intrinsic to fairy-tales. Often, black youth are forced by society and their surroundings to mature too quickly, and the positing of black people, young and old, within this child-like world becomes a political protest.
The question has two main parts. The first part asks what the elements of imagination, wonder, and magic do for the film, while the second asks how they (re)define blackness, race, and freedom. For the first part, my main take away was that these elements decontextualize our world. What I mean by this is that Guava Island separates itself as fictional, as a fairy tale, although it clearly parallels our current world in many ways. This separation allows for a more open, non-defensive viewership of the film, therefore allowing for the themes to be really taken into consideration. Secondly, the wonder and magic allow for the shock of Donald Glover’s character’s death to be so horrifying. We do not expect fairy tales to end with a main character dying, we expect a happy ending for everyone involved. Therefore the imagination and child-like wonder allow for a more potent “reality-check.” Lastly, fairy tales and magic and imagination all are typically associated with children. Therefore the form and these elements sneakily link the themes of violence and oppression to the idea of children– the next generation. This also allows for a reality-check.
The second part of the question deals with how the movie posits blackness, race, and freedom. The first thing I want to note is that (I’m pretty sure) the entire cast was black. This was a great casting choice as it allows the movie to focus on black people without forcing them into this long-standing binary of white or other. Further, this movie therefore reimagines black freedom, as it is in no way defined by the white man. The freedom in the movie they are striving for is freedom of expression and freedom from their oppressor, in this case Red. Moreover, the characters shown had variety in style, heritage, and personality. As a more current film, it battles the typical, monolithic portrayal of blackness by showing a wide range of characters in varying social classes, heritages, etc.
What negative effects (if any) does setting Guava Island on a mythical island have on the presentation of its themes?