grist is the second film in a planned three-part series of shorts from director Shannon Harris built upon a common saying, which in this case is ‘grist for the mill.’ (The first in the series is THREE birds.) It is the story of Hannah’s breakup with her lover, Roman, over his insensitivity to women’s issues. She is a feminist, he is not. In the words of the director, Hannah ends their ‘situationship,’ while acknowledging “that it wasn’t all a wash.” In a brief five minutes, Shannon Harris establishes a strong female character who can act upon her convictions while acknowledging and owning her sensuality.
Filming during the pandemic with a limited crew, director Harris makes remarkably interesting choices of framing and blocking to depict a relationship that is physically close but spiritually distant. Hannah has reluctantly contacted Roman after their dust-up the night before because he left his phone behind. Their conversation takes place at her apartment door with a brief flashback to their sexual encounter. The threshold visually reinforces the rift in the relationship: he is on the outside, she is on the inside—an inside that is the symbol of her inner self, the space he cannot physically or symbolically penetrate. Their wordless exchange of looks combines framing, performance, and editing into a suspenseful ‘will she or will she not’:
The framing gets tighter as the timing of the looks gets closer.
After Hannah firmly refuses to go back on her decision, Roman tries to enter ‘her space’ forcibly.
Director Harris also reinforces the conflict between the characters in their ‘positionality’ through color. The interior of the apartment is awash in a cream-gold color with splashes of green and red; the exterior shows only the stark white stairs. Though the architecture of the space is a given, the director makes it intentional through the costuming, as Hannah is dressed in a red sweater and blue dress, while Roman wears a dark jacket with just a glimmer of blue-green in his shirt. Visually, she blends with her environment; Roman clashes with it.
How space can be used expressively to articulate relationships is also shown through props, specifically the poster with the word Ciao–Italian for both hello and goodbye–written across it. The significance of the poster is suggested during the first scene as the camera ‘hands off’ from Hannah to the poster on the wall:
The importance of the poster becomes clear as the film ends on the same poster but now from a closer frame:
Thus, the shots of the poster ‘bookend’ the narrative bringing the story and the relationship to a ‘double’ end.
Shannon Harris shows not only a confident heroine but also associates her with Black women who in the past have asserted their rights to their bodies and roles in society. The rift between Hannah and Roman comes about because Roman dismisses the claim by a ‘famous actress’ to have been the victim of domestic violence. Since this exchange takes place in the context of a reference to the book and film of Their Eyes Were Watching God, we are drawn to make the connection between them. More specifically, we can draw a parallel between the use of space to depict a woman’s struggle for independence. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, this conflict is depicted through the open space of the porch and the closed space of the store; Janie enjoys the freedom of the porch, but Joe Starks ‘puts her in her place’ by forcing her to stay inside the store. In the film, there is a particularly poignant scene when Joe orders Janie, who had been talking to a group of locals on the porch, to come inside and insists that she wear a head scarf, thus forcing her into a double imprisonment. In grist, the outside/inside metaphor is reversed: the inside of the apartment is Hannah’s domain; Roman is kept outside on Hannah’s command.
