Do you feel that we can never thank film enough? Since the dawn of electronic media, cinema has been a powerful tool to educate, entertain, and propagate. We cannot deny that not all films touch us with the same intensity, but mostly, cinema leaves an imprint on us that we carry forward in our lives. In the earlier days, films used to be more than two hours long; now, with the fast pace and shorter attention spans in people, cinema too has adapted itself and has narrowed down the narrative. Director Megalyn Echikunwoke has given us a very powerful short film, “Weathering,” which will not only scare you but will have a long-lasting impact. It is amazing how a twenty-minute film could leave such a mammoth impact on you and address a ton of issues that “Black Women” associate themselves with. Alexis Louder’s performance is one of the most powerful performances that we have recently witnessed. The story is predominantly about a mother losing her baby and the visions she has after. However, that is just one way of describing the film. The film stores a lot of symbolism and evokes horror in its rawest form. We have watched a plethora of films about the difficulties of a black woman, but the film carefully and artistically introduces us to the unspoken horrors that women of all races face.
Spoilers Ahead
Distress, Disease, And Depression
The film opens with Gemina (Alexis Louder) in the delivery room at the hospital, where she is in a lot of pain. She was under anesthesia, but soon she realized something was wrong, and she kept telling the doctor, which the doctors ignored. She said that she felt she could not breathe, but the doctors and the nurses kept telling her that’s how labor feels. She was told that everything she was saying she was feeling was all in her head. This is the first symbol that women are unheard, no matter how much they voice their opinions. The task gets tougher when a black woman is surrounded by white people. Soon, sheit felt as iflike her body was about to shut down, and she was in a fit where she trembled, and her white apron was smeared with blood. Unfortunately, she loses her baby. As soon as she regains consciousness, she asks for her daughter, but she is sedated again. The director slaps the second symbolism hard on our faces. Women, especially when they are black, are kept in the dark and sedated, either by telling them how normal things are or by asking them to focus on something other than admitting that she was right about their situation.
Under the influence of sedation, Gemina finds herself pregnant, and she sees her walking toward a house. The wailing of a baby came from the inside, and as she walked into the darkness, she woke up. She did not need anyone telling her that her baby was no more. This is where the third symbolism is established: women generally are deprived of the truth, and the unsettling emotions push them into the darkest corner as depression and anxiety wrap around them. Soon we see the paramedic prescribing her the pills she should take and warning her that she must take them as instructed. The symbolism here gets darker. It probably hints at how therapy and drugs are believed to cure deep wounds, making a person free from the monsters within herself. This symbolism not only covers women but enraptures society as a whole.
Next, we see Gemina working out, trying to move past the nightmare that she had recently been through. Unfortunately, it is not easy for her as she breaks down. Moments later, she was interrupted by her mother. Her mother is the symbol of false positivity. False positivity is deadlier than anything else; it tells a person that everything will go back to normal and makes a person find ways to believe their reality differently. Here, in the scene, her mother says that going to the hospital was the problem and that Shawn (Gemina’s abandoned husband) should not have been allowed to have any say about childbirth. Gemina’s mother also talks about how her (Gemina’s) father had nothing to do with it. This also hints at toxic feminism, where men are considered the enemy. Simultaneously, this is also where men fall prey to stereotypes.
Soon after, Gemina began to see a cat—a cat being the symbol of a bad omen. Soon, she thinks she sees someone standing in the darkness, watching her. Gemina goes into the shower, where she trips and falls and hurts her head. But she believed someone had attacked her. This is a classic example of how people hallucinate when they feel abandoned. Gemina calls her friend over, who assures her that no one is planning to hurt or murder her. But soon, he tries to get physical. The director rightly pointed out how society views and considers women as objects and considers them to be objects. The friend Gemina thought would console her added to her trauma by abusing her trust and violating the code of conduct. Gemina, a journalist by profession, feigned that her work was coming out just fine. Moments later, she admits that all of this is too much for her. This correctly points out how every woman is exhausted by what society puts them through.
‘Weathering’ Ending – Kill It Or Be Killed
Towards the end, we see the attacker dragging Gemina and dumping her into the pool, and trying to choke her. Gemina, fighting for her life, finally gets to see the face of the attacker. This is where she realized how her attacker all these while was herself. This is the best symbolism in the entire film. Mental illness finds a way to choke us every day. The only way to combat it is to face it, feel every pain, and finally, when we are ready, move on. This scene might also mean that unless we force ourselves to kill our darker side, we can never allow ourselves to enjoy life.
The movie is open-ended, and we feel that was the right way. Every woman, despite their skin color, has her fair share of struggles and pain. It is not ideal for generalizing their issues. However, every woman so far is tied to similar harrowing pain that society injects.