DVD Review: The Long Song, based on the book by Andrea Levy

The Long Song
(DVD Long)

Every single life is a story worthy of being told.

 

In The Long Song, we follow the rise and fall and rise again of Miss July, a woman born into slavery on the island of Jamaica. Her story begins when a white woman sees her along the roadside, hiding in her mother’s skirts. This woman, Caroline, is new to the island–banished to live on her brother’s sugar plantation after her husband died. Caroline, on her way to her new home, spots the beautiful girl, and when she admires her, her brother says, “Take her–she’s yours. They belong to us.” After a slight hesitation, Caroline chooses to make July her house companion, thus, raising her from field work but stealing her from her mother.

 

July grows to be defiant and charming and selfish and manipulative. Her pursuit of independence and agency in her life isolates her from the community of enslaved workers.

 

When a new overseer with abolitionist motivations comes to the plantation, both women see an opportunity to improve their situation in life. Fates rise and fall, but when slavery is abolished by the British Parliament in 1830, all of their lives are extremely disrupted in surprising ways.

 

In the end, as the camera slowly pans over each person, each survivor of slavery, the narrator explains the story of Miss July is just one story amongst many, and they all deserve to be told.

 

This BBC production is based on a book of the same name by Andrea Levy and available on DVD at your library.

[If you like this movie, I’d suggest you would also enjoy Small Island, also by Andrea Levy and also in both book and (Hoopla) movie formats.] [Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this mini-series ] | [ official BBC Long Song web site ]

 

Recommended by Carrie K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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