This December 23, Amazon studios will be premiering Sylvie’s Love.
The film starring Tessa Thompson and Namdi Asomugha tells the love story of Sylvie and Robert through the beauty of color, television and jazz. The film was written and directed by Eugene Ashe and is his way of showing the beauty and class of Black people within Harlem and across the nation during this time. In his own words, he wanted to show that we also looked like Doris Day. Sylvie’s Love is a period piece, however, the film shows a different view and representation of Black life and love instead of adversity and pain. Sylvie’s Love highlights Black love, beauty, friendship and culture without it being depicted as painful.
For Ashe he was able to pull inspiration from his own family photos and with Ashe being a musician himself and also from Harlem, he was able to weave aspects of his own story into the film. There was an appreciation for the use of color within film and the color palette of each scene combined with the Jazz music of Harlem that worked together to help further the storytelling process.
For Ryan Michelle Bathe, she was able to come onto set feeling and understanding the history of the character she was portraying. Bathe and her castmates along with the crew focused on every detail of the film looking into the body language of the characters, how their hair would be styled, their wardrobe and the history behind the details. The awareness of this helped to better mold the world Kate and the characters were navigating.
For Bathe her ability to be a part of the film is a manifestation of her being a hopeless romantic, from her falling in love with the script and the characters and she is honored to be a part of the film. The love from the cast and crew is shown through the love story they’re depicting.
For Ashe, being able to tell a story of Black love in a year filled with Black trauma is the most needed emotion to be depicted and felt at this time.