Hello, I'm Malcolm Washington, the co-writer and director of The Piano Lesson. So this scene here is the climax of the film. So all spoilers ahead. In the film Berniece, played by Danielle Deadwyler, she has an advanced relationship with the piano and was afraid to play it because, as she says, she doesn't need to awaken the spirits that the piano conjures. Upstairs, her brother Boy Willie, who has been attempting to sell the piano throughout the film, engages in a life-or-death battle with a ghost as he faces a kind of spiritual reckoning going down inside him. At that moment, Danielles Berniece decides that she must face this matter and assist and play the piano for the primary time. We talked loads about this sequence during filming after which during editing. This is where all of our topics come together. The idea of shadows and lightweight, of truth and secrets, and confronting the deepest parts of ourselves to get through. And transcend. Call her, Berniece, call her. I really like what Danielle is doing here. Actually, she just goes elsewhere. And I feel in the event you consult with her now about that sequence, she wouldn't even remember filming it. This here. We desired to tell a story of Black spiritual practice in America. So in our spiritual practice there are these two different traditions, the black southern Christian tradition and roots from West African spiritual practice. And we engage with each here to acknowledge the iconography of a West African spiritual practice in Berniece's white dress. The idea you could call in your ancestors and that there’s a limitless relationship between the living and the dead. Here she summons the spirits of her ancestors and chants their names. “I want you to help me, I want you to help me, I want you to help me, Mama Berniece, I want you to help me.” They declare their identity and find power in it. As this scene builds, you'll see the editing rhythm and lighting intensify as she summons these spirits to exorcise this spirit. Avery can be there representing our Christian spiritual practice. And he opens the door to all of this. At this moment you’ll hear the rumbling of the home, the drums of Africa sounding, followed by choir voices representing our ancestors and the wonder they carry with them. There was a haunting throughout your complete film, and the haunting was spooky in places. But here we see that it has a robust beauty. I at all times like this picture here since it's a type of family portrait. I checked out this. A Japanese photographer named Masahisa Fukase took this family portrait series that actually inspired the photographs of the family here. And after they are available, she is finally capable of exorcise that ghost and resolve the trauma of her family past as everyone lays hands on her and the flame ignites. Peace is restored. The family is connected to one another and to the ancestors before them. And there’s beauty.
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