Coconut/Cane & Cutlass (1994)

Intersections of the autobiographical voice (in the realm of mythic/memory and the personal) co-mingle with the historical, to produce a film that is neither an "official historical document" nor a "personal history." Instead, "Coconut/Cane & Cutlass" is a hybrid fusion of the autobiographical, historical and experiential, in an episodic structure that is richly textured and layered with optically printed imagery, front-screen projection, re-created archival images, oral narratives/histories, a spirit dance, and theatrically stylized dramatic scenes. The poetic, fragmented style and structure of the film represent the exile's internal struggle to "reconstitute" her own sense of self in relation to her history and ancestry.