Some Sweet Day

My personal journey with Some Sweet Day is deeply rooted in the experiences of my family and me, as we faced the unexpected onset of my father's illness in 2014. Over the course of eight years, until his passing in 2022, we grappled with a life marked by constant disruptions and adjustments as we cared for him. During this time, grief became an ever-present companion, creeping into our lives long before his eventual departure. This period of anticipatory grief left an indelible mark on all of us. Originally, I set out to create a film about the profound concept of living in a perpetual state of anticipatory grief, a life overshadowed by uncertainty. However, when my father passed away in 2022, I realized the project needed to take a different direction.

The result was Dead Yard, a four-channel video installation inspired by Jamaican spaces of mourning, featuring my mother, my father's brother, and his mother. This project aimed to explore the collective nature of grief and how different family members coped. Some Sweet Day is an evolution of this concept into a cinematic representation. In this iteration, I focus on my mother, highlighting her role as a grieving wife and, to some extent, the mother of a grieving son. I was curious to understand how she navigated yet another 'new normal,' just as I did, contending with a flood of emotions, regrets, and unanswerable questions.

The film's production took a minimalist approach, with only myself, the filmmaker, playing all roles on set due to the intimate nature of the subject matter. The heart of the film emerges from an intimate and candid conversation between my mother and me, set in the guest room of her Florida apartment. This dialogue is complemented by archival footage from my parents and my on-screen exploration of family photos, inviting viewers to contemplate the profound themes of death, grief, and memory more deeply.

My vision for Some Sweet Day extends beyond the screen. In a society where death and grief remain societal taboos, this film seeks to challenge the norm. We rarely discuss the finality of life and the complex process of grieving openly. The true measure of success for this film lies in its capacity to prompt just one person to engage more consciously with the themes it presents. In the wake of the pandemic, which brought sudden and widespread loss to countless lives, many are enduring the weight of grief without the necessary tools and resources to process it. I hope that Some Sweet Day serves as a catalyst for individuals to seek out these resources and engage in meaningful conversations about death, grief, and the enduring nature of memory.