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Kemba 'Nobody I Can Trust' by Tomson Tee

David Knight - 29th July 2019

It's all sweetness and light in Kemba's world, as he makes his way to work at the diner every day. Only thing is, black men are always getting arrested...

Describing his video as 'Get Out meets Groundhog Day', Tomson Tee has created a brilliantly chilling satire on race relations in the USA, for Nobody I Can Trust.

Kemba plays an initially happy-go-lucky worker in an aggressively retro-Americana suburb. We witness a loop of the same three scenes that make up his day-to-day routine. And each day it starts with a different African-American person getting arrested, on Kemba's walk to work. 

And as more and more black men get locked away by increasingly aggressive cops, Kemba begins to notice the town’s attitude toward him shifting eerily, the mood in the diner changing. Things start to get ugly.

Tomson Tee's crucial eye for detail serves the narrative so well, using a style employed by B movies and TV shows from the 50s and 60s, and building a surreal nightmare that feels increasingly plausible.

Entirely plausible in fact, as the truth about the rise of racism in Trump's America is repeatedly borne out by events. 

 

 

David Knight - 29th July 2019

Tags

  • New Director
  • Narrative
  • Pick of the Day
  • Hip Hop
  • Racism
  • Horror
  • Groundhog Day
  • Get Out

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Credits

Production/Creative

Director
Tomson Tee
Producer
Nadine Lübbeling
Production Company
Ghost Robot
Executive Producer
Mark De Pace
Executive Producer
Zach Mortensen
Production Manager
Skyler Tapley
1st AD
Carlos Zozaya

Camera

Director of Photography
Cory Fraiman-lott
Focus Puller
Brian Hall

Lighting/Grip

Gaffer
Laura Hilliard

Art

Art Director
Jay Laforest

Wardrobe

Wardrobe
Marc Anthony George
Make-up
Jade Stanton

Editorial

Editor
Tomson Tee

Grading

Colourist
Mary Perrino

Commission

Label
Republic Records

Other credits

Cast

Melvin Mogoli, Chalan Cunningham, Jake Parisse, Elliot “lee" Cowart, Mikey Cris, Skye Volkening-Jeffrey, Charli Ouda, Mino Jones, Derrick T. Lewis, David Ventura, Trent Cox, Taylor Owens

David Knight - 29th July 2019

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