During the 2027 International Black Theater Festival I watched a screening of Basement People at Winston-Salem's Aperture theater. It's our city's only independent film theater.
Image courtesy of Christine Swanson (Director) IBTF, July 28, 2026
Basement People is a 2026 short drama film directed by Christine Swanson and written by Kyale Akeem Williams. Swanson packs a lot into the 18 minutes. The film doesn't disappoint. It depicts trauma, mental health, and neurodiversity in a Black Detroit family.
The film's young protagonist, Tina, prompted my thoughts to the character named Pecola Breedlove of Toni Morrison's, The Bluest Eye. Tina feels unloved, invisible, sad. She's seen and heard things that no child should.
Interestingly, in the film, Tina is labeled clinically depressed. To her family she is eccentric, and therefore not treated as fully human. The film's mention of the diagnostic label of clinical depression is befitting of western psychology's lens. However, "a person is a person because of other persons" is explanatory in African-centered psychology. Tina's family (the other persons in her life) are a problem for Tina's brain and mental health. This family is likewise a problem for Tina's uncle's brain and his mental health. The family is mean, violent, emotionally abusive, loud, and unloving. It's normal to them to exist that way.
Though never expressly named as so in the film, the Basement People (Tina and her uncle) are neurodiverse people. The brains of neurodiverse people need a reset, calmness, and peace that may defy understanding to others.
Basement People is an opportunity to see a young Black female actress perform a big and important role. The film allows us a glimpse inside a story of neurodiversity that is rarely depicted within a contemporary Black family on screen. It will motivate you to want to understand more about this lived experience for many people of our world. See the film if you get a chance.