Review Alberts Flower and Black Nostalgia

There are several documentaries in which the filmmaker returns to their childhood home. They are often welcomed in by the homeowners or allowed to walk around the house without being bothered. Those filmmakers are overwhelmingly white. In the new short film Albert’s Flower by the legendary actor James Pickens Jr., a Black man revisits his old home and is met with suspicion.

Will he be able to revisit his memories at the place they were made, without the threat of passive racial injustice?

The answer is not at first. Greta (played by Éilis Cahill) is a white woman whose finger is on the verge of a Karen-style 911 call. What keeps Greta’s finger from pressing the button is Albert himself. The man mesmerizes the woman with his story of the house she now lives in.

Although Albert never sets foot inside the house, his memories take him back to every nook and cranny. To spaces and places that even Greta knows well. As he opens his memories and his life story, Greta and the audience learn a bit about racist structures that prevented Black people from owning property, and how Albert’s dad got around it. That, and a few other family secrets, are unearthed, leaving Greta squeamish, but soon she sympathizes with Albert. Along the way, she discovers some things about her own neighbors that make her actions toward Albert initially a bit shameful.

The short film Albert’s Flower is masterful storytelling in the most stripped-down of scenarios. It’s a story that has two people, one setting, and a series of monologues that carry the film. It takes tremendous skill and talent to capture the audience’s attention with the weight of a monologue. Pickens’s delivery is something that fans of Grey’s Anatomy would recognize. He effortlessly utilizes his body, voice, and facial expressions to convey an entire story while standing in one spot.

Albert’s Flower is making its way through the festival circuit right now. You can find more information at Albertsflowerfilm.com.