Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

If This Ain't Heaven

Black Lives • 27m

Directed by Roberta Cantow • Documentary • With Jacob Gaymon and Africa, his cat. • 1983 • 28 minutes

If This Ain't Heaven offers a portrait of an African American man that may very well challenge any number of sterotypes and assumptions about masculinity and African American men. The film shows us the very private side of Mr. G, a seemingly ordinary man, by allowing us inside his home where he interacts in a most loving, charming and humorous way with his cat, Africa. It is a kind of performance, and Mr. G — who speaks to and for his cat — becomes the "ventriloquist/artist par excellence." One can debate whether Mr. G is lonely or not, but his life is most assuredly enhanced by the story that he has invented about himself and the cat, and the manner in which he has filled in the details.

Tags
african american male, african-american studies, american studies, americas, animal behavior, animals and animal rights, anthropomorphism, biology, black culture, black stereotypes, black studies, black vernacular, cats, challenging the image of masculinity, communication and media studies, creativity, cultural and ethnic studies, doc, documentary, experimental, experimental film, expository, feminine stereotypes, film and video studies, folkart, folklore, gender studies, human animal bond, if this ain't heaven, masculine stereotypes, masculinity, men's studies, mid-atlantic, new york city, ovid, performance, pets, portrait, portraits of individuals, roberta cantow, science and technology, sociology, sociss, stereotype, talking animals, the, united states, urban life, urban sociology, ventriloquism, women’s studies, world regions

Up Next in Black Lives

  • Guns and Mothers
    53:46
    Guns and Mothers

    Guns and Mothers

    Directed by Thom Powers • Documentary • 2003 • 53 minutes

    Two advocacy groups, The Million Moms and the Second Amendment Sisters, are diametrically opposed on gun control, but they agree on one point: mothers will and should have a voice in determining gun control policy in America. GUNS and MOT...

  • Prism
    1:17:51
    Prism

    Prism

    Directed by Eléonore Yameogo, An van. Dienderen, and Rosine Mbakam • Documentary • 2021 • 78 minutes

    Is the technology of photography and motion pictures inherently racist?

    For PRISM, Belgian filmmaker An van. Dienderen invited Rosine Mbakam, from Cameroon, and Eléonore Yameogo from Burkina Fas...

  • Like Any Other Kid
    1:29:13
    Like Any Other Kid

    Like Any Other Kid

    Directed by Victoria Mills • Documentary • 2020 • 89 minutes

    Something incredible is happening behind the locked doors of the James Ranch in Morgan Hill, California, the Bridge City Center for Youth in Bridge City, Louisiana, and 162nd St. Sheltering Arms, in the Bronx, New York. Caring and comm...

×