PORT TOWNSEND — Filmmaker Aaron Johnson is intent on portraying tenderness in black men and normalizing platonic touch among them.
The black brute narrative has had a stronghold over the way black men have been presented in the mainstream for 400 years, Johnson said.
In his new documentary short, “Dark and Tender,” a group of 10 black men are shown exploring a different side of themselves — tenderness between friends.
The film will premiere at 7:30 p.m. Friday as a part of the Port Townsend Film Festival’s Black Filmmakers and the PNW Forum at the Pope Marine Building, 250 Madison St., Suite 1.
Tickets can be purchased online at https://ptff2024.eventive.org/schedule/66bbd19560ad2f00406ab0d7.
“I was trying to figure out a way to build community around this practice,” Johnson said. “I feel stronger about this now, that in order for this to have any real impact in the United States, awareness needs to be given around it. So, my early exposure to film making, I realized was probably the most scalable way to bring light to the topic of the chronically undertouched. For me, workshops are great, but they are not able to be witnessed.”
Before the there was even an idea for the film, and before the workshops, Johnson began what he called his personal touch plan.
“My personal touch plan started out as me just reclaiming how to touch myself,” Johnson said.
At first, he said he didn’t feel a difference.
“Then I combined that with singing and walking the earth barefoot. I did that for about a week. I started adding experiences with a partner, who, even though we had a sexual relationship, I had time set aside for platonic touch, massage or cuddles. Then I started seeing grief come up that I had not had accessible. All of the sudden, I started seeing some really fundamental shifts in my mental health.”
As his practice was initiated, Johnson said he did not have plans to centralize touch practices in his community work. It was four years until Johnson started sharing platonic touch with other black men. Eventually, he began leading workshops for black men.
“Dark and Tender” depicts one such weekend workshop, set on Whidbey Island.
Johnson was aware of the distinct vulnerability present for those participating in this film, which depicts already vulnerable experiences for the men.
“I was experiencing a lot of anxiety and fear about the platonic touch, the hand holding,” said Ben Wilson, producer and participant. “And then we held hands and started talking and listening and, over time, that anxiety started to reduce and then, over time, it became comforting.”
Johnson looked for African heritage cinematographers. Ultimately, his brother Bryce Johnson filmed the project.
“One of the biggest roles as a director was really curating the energetic field,” Johnson said, “because it was such a unique and tender space. As solid as these brothers were, it didn’t take much before it was like a hotspot for us coming after each other, or someone shutting down and not wanting to be present with the space or what we were asking them to do. You also want to curate your cinematographer. The person who has the camera in their face has so much profound power.”
In the film’s 19-minute runtime, a story of missing connection and modern and historical violence culminates with small images of black men holding hands as they talk with each other.
Johnson leads an exercise where groups of three take turns tucking each other in. An uncomfortable process for some, as they begin, would prove to be a comforting and positive experience, he said.
Toward the end of the film, a portion of the workshop where the men reflect on their experiences proves particularly poignant.
“James Baldwin had three friends, Martin, Malcolm and Evers, and all three of his friends were taken off of this earth in a violent fashion,” participant Carter McBride said. “Can you imagine having three of your close friends taken in that fashion? And still live your life to be productive? How do we support each other in that pain and trauma?”
“Dark and Tender” was produced as the first project of new Port Townsend-based company Color of Sound. Wilson is the CEO and founder.
“If you’ve seen the film, you know that I’m in it and I talk a bit about my own touch story, which combines a lack of touch from my father and some overtouch from my mother,” Wilson said. “So I personally connected with the work, and the trauma that requires the work. It’s been gratifying to play a role in bringing this work to the public, because I think it’s so important, specifically for black men, but more broadly for society to understand the impact of the lack of touch.
“Everyone has a touch story, and that’s, I think, sort of the magic that we’ve seen with this topic and with this film, is that it has this universal appeal, but we’re giving it a very specific application with black men,” he said. “It is needed urgently.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
