If This Ain't Heaven
Short Films
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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.
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