I have always been fascinated and inspired by the magnitude of labor, innovation, collaborative efforts, and creativity needed to successfully create a film, regardless of length or genre. My favorite parts of watching films on DVDs were the Behind-the-Scenes segments, where the directors, editors, and producers give viewers a peek into the spectacle of filmmaking. I was delighted to learn about the creative and logistical decisions that directors and cinematographers must make from concept to completion. Sharing this delight with my students this semester is a privilege and a gift.
Intro to Film and Video Analysis is a course that gives undergraduate film students the language and concepts they need to study the form and content of a film effectively and adeptly. One of the goals of this class is for the students not to memorize these concepts but to apply them by sharing their own analyses and responses to the films we view. Another main objective is for students to acquire a deeper critical eye for understanding the implicit and explicit meanings in films and explore how the film form further accentuates those meanings.
To make these concepts accessible, I will reframe these concepts in my own words and offer my own in-depth analysis of a scene from Suicide by Sunlight (2019) by Nikyatu Jusu.
Synopsis: Valentina, a day-walking Black vampire protected from the sun by her melanin, is forced to suppress her bloodlust to regain custody of her estranged daughters in this acclaimed short that played Sundance.
In the textbook “Looking At Movies: An Introduction to Film,” films are described as “complex syntheses," unique connections between many specific, interrelated elements that form a coherent whole. Film analysis lets us understand how those elements produce meaning within that coherent whole.
“…film analysis involves more than breaking down a sequence, a scene, or an entire movie to identify tools and techniques that compose it; the investigation is also concerned with the function and potential effect of that combination: why does it make you laugh? Or prompt you to tell your friend to see it? Or incite you to join the Marines? The search for answers to these sorts of questions boils down to one essential inquiry: What does it mean?1
To analyze a film requires what the textbook calls “active looking,” recognizing the tools, systems, and methods a filmmaker uses to convey a story, meaning, emotions, and ideas. By actively looking at a film, we can understand its cinematic language, described as the “myriad of integrated techniques and concepts [that] connects us to the story while deliberately concealing the means by which it does so.” The cinematic language of a film is conveyed through techniques such as continuity editing, cutting on action, fade in/fade out transitions, and camera angles.
In summation, cinematic language ensures that what we see in a film matches how we see the world. Intuitively, when we see a fade-in or fade-out transition in a film, we know that indicates time has passed. This transition style reflects our lived experience with time passing as it relates to the sun setting or rising to indicate night or morning. Likewise, cutting-on-action “hides instantaneous and potentially jarring shifts from one camera viewpoint to another.”
Understanding cinematic language helps us provide evidence of how a filmmaker uses these tools and techniques to communicate implicit and explicit meanings within their film. Identifying the implicit meaning of a film requires interpretation rather than making obvious statements.
“Implicit meaning lies below the surface of a movie’s story and presentation; an association, connection, or interference that a viewer makes on the basis of the explicit meanings available on the surface of the movie.”
Because films hold a lot of power as media and information sources, they are also perfect vehicles that depict cultural and social norms that reflect the viewers’ shared belief systems. The textbook calls this cultural invisibility, which is how filmmakers—using cinematic language—communicate “implied political, cultural, and ideological messages that help make the movie so appealing.”
Here are some themes I picked up from watching Suicide By Sunlight.
Blackness as Protection
In vampiric folklore, vampires are typically white, thin, and pale, making them especially sensitive to sunlight. In Jusu’s world, vampires are Black and are protected from the sun by their melanin. This gives them more freedom to move about during the daytime, which white vampires—if they were to attempt to do that— would mean they’d be committing “suicide by sunlight.”
Formally, Jusu explores the power of melanin and its significance with special effects. In a montage featuring Black vampires, their brown skin seems to glow effervescently. In addition, we see the irises of the Black vampires glow golden.
The irony of this is that in our everyday reality, the darker someone is, the more oppressed they are, making it hard to move around the world freely. In our reality, Black people are criminalized for their melanin, while in Jusu’s world, they’re protected by it.
The implicit point that Jusu may be attempting to make is that something so simple as skin color can completely shift someone’s lived experience. The criminalization of Black vampires is the undercurrent thematic focus and gives the film a more nuanced perspective on race, sexuality, and gender.
Through the main character's experience, we see all of this collide as it relates to Black motherhood. She is estranged from her daughters due to her being a vampire, making her ex-husband feel unsafe around her. She isn’t suited to be a mother due to her own biological condition. However, her experience of being a nurse gives her the space to give care to a young sick Black boy.
Morality and Death
Throughout the film, we see the main character drink the blood of various people for various reasons. She stalks the night, hungrily sucking strangers dry. Her longing for her daughters and subsequent loneliness lead her to overconsumption to the point of vomiting up all that she’s drunk. This could be seen as a metaphor for substance abuse or a way folks self-soothe under emotional and mental stress.
In another scene, when it’s clear the boy isn’t going to get better, she sucks him dry instead of turning him. Implicitly making the decision and allowing him the opportunity to feel true freedom in death.
In the final scene, she kills the stepmother of her children so that she can take them with her. In this scene, her powers are used defensively to keep her connection to her babies. She seems more apologetic about them seeing her bloodied face than she is about killing the woman.
“Chapter 1: Looking At Movies, pp 8-9.” Monahan, Dave, and Richard Meran Barsam. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film. W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.