On the evening of November 24 I was en route to Annapolis, MD to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my aunts, uncles and cousins. It happened to be the same evening that a grand jury in Missouri decided not to indict officer Darren Wilson for shooting teenager Michael Brown for robbing a convenience store the preceding August. I learned of this decision roughly twenty minutes prior to arriving at my aunt's home and entered a long-awaited family reunion somber and unsettled. It did not seem a time to celebrate. The country was in a state of deep unrest and there were some difficult and longstanding questions to be answered concerning humanity, justice and the bewildering continuance of prejudice into the 21st century. These questions were made even more pressing in my mind by the video I had finally brought myself to watch, just days before departing, of Eric Garner being choked to death for selling single cigarettes in what is ostensibly the most progressive and socially conscious city in our country. I hugged my family, carried my bags to my room, and then set out for a walk amid the opulent, isolate suburbs fringing the Chesapeake. The effect of this walk was a transmutation of the fear, uncertainty and unrest evoked by the horrific deaths of these two men into a vision of profound love. The following video shot in Detroit's Eastern Market upon my return home to Michigan is the realization of that vision.
"A Vignette, in Love" from Jeremy Dulac on Vimeo.