A Love Song for Latasha
Photos courtesy of Sophia Allison
A Conversation with Director, Sophia Nahli Allison
The importance of archiving and reclaiming the narrative of African-Americans through documentary filmmaking has been a spiritual process for Sophia Nahli Allison, director of A Love Song for Latasha.
“We want this film to really challenge conventionality and really make people wake up and recognize, critique and question how our narratives have been documented,” said Allison. “Why has this young girl’s life - for the past almost 30 years not been documented in its fullness.”
Influenced by writer, anthropologist, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston - Allison and her crew set out to tell the story of the young life that was lived by Latasha Harlins. Often referenced as one of the catalysts for the 1992 L.A. riots, 15-year-old Harlins was fatally shot by South Central L.A. store owner, Soon Ja Du after being wrongfully accused of stealing an orange juice. Although a significant figure, not much was known about Harlins except her murder.
Until the release of A Love Song for Latasha, the only archival footage that existed of Harlins is the surveillance footage from that fateful afternoon which Allison chose not to include in this documentary. Challenged by the lack of footage and photos, Allison and her creative producer Janice Duncan used experimental forms of storytelling to collect and convey the memories of Harlins’ best friend, Ty, and cousin, Shinese. The documentary took about two years to complete.
“I wanted to tell a story of Latasha that allows her to exist in her fullness and I really allowed them both to have the time needed to decide if this is something that they wanted to do,” said Allison. “I didn’t want at all to retrigger anything or to make them feel like they had to tell the story. I wanted them to feel like they had a part in remembering and archiving Latasha.”
In addition to talking to Shinese and Ty, Allison and Duncan spent a lot of time in the South Central L.A. neighborhood where she lived, as they were developing the film.
“Janice and I did a lot of spiritual conjuring where we would go into the neighborhood, spend time there, and let things unravel as they naturally would. And just hearing stories from other people in the community, we would always have an idea of what we wanted to capture, but also letting things be organic,” said Allison.
Their spiritual conjuring in the form of documentary storytelling colored in the lines around the memory of Harlins allowing viewers to get a sense of who this young person was, the lives she touched and her bright future. Through voiceovers from Shinese and Ty as well as reenactments from neighborhood girls who were about the same age as Harlins - the audience is invited to be a part of oral history in a way that very few documentaries permit. In so many ways, you feel like you are a part of Latasha’s inner circle.
“We wanted to create a very non-linear and dream-like effect where we are personally excavating our own memories. When we have our own dreams, especially when they’re influenced by trauma, a lot of times they can shift or change,” said Allison. “And we wanted the film to feel like it was constantly going through this dream world and sometimes a little bit blurry and fuzzy - trying to recollect these memories and put together these little pieces of who Latasha was. We wanted people to feel like they were intimately involved with the memories of Ty and Shinese.”
Sharing their recollections of Harlins has also been healing for Shinese and Ty. “It’s been really amazing to see how these memories have bought back such a child-like quality to both of them. When they both talk about Latasha they completely light up and you see them revisit that time period,” said Allison.
Allison is encouraging the audience to be an active participant in the archiving of their own stories.
“We need to recontextualize this history in its fullness. Amid this trauma are also memories that they hold so close and so dear to them,” said Allison when talking about the process of remembering with Shinese and Ty. “And so that’s what I hope for other people - I want to see [this] in other communities - South Central and those alike. What does it mean for us to remember our memories - even if they appear from the outside to be so housed in trauma? If we really dig into that - what is the joy that we can find in it? What is the peace and love that we can find in it? And how can we feel by reclaiming our narrative that someone else has taken and exploited.”
A Love Song for Latasha is still making its rounds on the festival circuit, but a screening in South Central L.A. is in the works. For more information, click here.
