Master. 2022. USA. Written and directed by Mariama Diallo. With Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Amber Gray, Molly Bernard, Nike Kadri. 91 min.
Mariama Diallo’s debut feature film reveals the specters of racism that haunt American educational institutions. The film eerily gets to the core of what it’s like to be Black at an all-white school, as Diallo grounds the story in horror in order to potently expose how Black women are treated in academia (and beyond). In Master, we see three women strive to find their place at Ancaster, an elite New England University: Gail Bishop, the school’s first Black master; Jasmine Moore, a college freshman; and Liv Beckman, a professor with a secret. Layering the potential of a real ghost haunting Jasmine with the school’s racist legacy nipping at the heels of Jasmine and Liv leaves us with an unresolved conclusion to a very real issue—just like in real life.
Hair Wolf. 2018. USA. Written and directed by Mariama Diallo. With Kara Young, Taliah Webster and Madeline Weinstein. 12 min.
In a Black hair salon in gentrifying Brooklyn, the local residents fend off a strange new monster: white women intent on sucking the lifeblood from Black culture.