Native Son

On the surface, Black and Blue appears to be a “day in life” of a protagonist, played by Johnson. It begins with him waking up in bed and getting ready in the bathroom. Filmed in his home and featuring his family, Black and Blue takes its title from the Fats Waller jazz standard (popularized by Louis Armstrong), which can be heard in the video (played on the piano by Johnson’s son). The film is also connected to Johnson’s work and artistic practice, showing interspersed clips of his own as well as artworks by other Black artists (like Deana Lawson), books ( like Roy deCarava), and traditional African masks in his home.

Seven minutes in length, the film features two black male hikers — one ascending a mountain, another descending — who encounter each other as their paths cross. Their balletic movements are at once lithe and halting, athletic and awkward, challenging stereotypical notions of the forever rhythmic elegance of the black body in space.