Exposure: Cane River (1982)

​Peter Metoyer, a college graduate and former football star who’s turned down the NFL in favor of working on his family’s farm and writing poetry, meets and falls for Maria Mathis, a spirited and ambitious young woman determined to chart her own path. Their tender yet forbidden romance unfolds in the shadow of history, confronting class divisions and the colorism that lingers within their Creole community. Their love lays bare the tensions between, and exposes the fragile structures of, two Black worlds in the town of Cane River, both descended from slaves, yet separated by generations of privilege, proximity, and pain.

​Cane River is the only narrative feature by celebrated documentarian Horace B. Jenkins. He died in 1982 shortly after completing the film, leaving it lost for decades, a fate all too common for the major yet overlooked treasures of late-20th-century Black independent cinema. With no distribution and no surviving archival prints, it vanished… that is until a negative miraculously resurfaced in 2014 and was restored by IndieCollect. Jenkins’ film endures as a sweet, nuanced, and deeply felt portrait of love preserved and persevered in a world still learning how to meet it with the same tender gaze it so freely offers.

​​​About Exposure

​​​This screening is presented by Exposure, a traveling cinema and podcast created by Brandon Shillingford. Through engaging programming and conversation, Exposure is dedicated to celebrating overlooked films, cinematic history, and building community around the emotional, political, and cultural dimensions of cinema with creativity, thoughtfulness, and care.

Follow along at @exposure.cinema on Instagram and at exposurecinema.org for more information.