Tchaiko Omawale, Director

Screening Thursday, April 4th – 1978 Maplewood Arts Center

Solace features Hope Olaide Wilson, Lynn Whitfield, Glynn Turman, Chelsea Tavares, Luke Rampersad and Sydney Bennett (from the music group The Internet), with music composed by Meshell Ndgeocello

When her father dies, Sole (17), is forced to move across the country to live with her overbearing grandmother, Irene. Sole, desperate and eager to return to New York to continue her life plans, numbs her pain and conflicting emotions with food.  An educational art grant becomes the solution to all her problems and she recruits her grandmother’s rebellious teenage neighbors, Jasmine and Guedado, to help her create an application that will get her life back on track.

However, best laid plans often go awry and Sole’s escape is complicated by Irene’s emotional demands, Jasmine’s cutting, and her own bingeing.  When Irene discovers Sole’s plans, things quickly unravel and Sole retreats to the bliss of drugs and her newfound friendships. She develops and navigates feelings for Guedado and pressures herself to fit what she imagines is his type. This leads her to diet and, without the comfort of food, she continues to lose her footing. Sole must ultimately come to terms with her history and her present if she is ever to move forward into her future. Through her relationships with Irene, Jasmine, and Guedado she is forced to come to terms with what she really needs, whether it was part of her plan or not.

From the director: “The story was inspired by my journey with an eating disorder and self-harm which stemmed from the challenges I faced growing up. I left my home country of Jamaica at age seven and was raised in seven different countries around the world. I survived this nomadism by being friendly and charming on the surface while keeping the darker stuff, hidden beneath the skin. My circumstances and upbringing were unique, but my angst and desire to escape was universal.

Solace lives in the space between art film and experimental video art installation.  The experimental elements of the film deal with the effects of my migration played out on my body  and in the rendering of black woman’s emotional landscape.

It is a coming of age story for both the younger and older characters in the film.”  TCHAIKO OMAWALE – WRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER