'Compensation,' a movie set in 1910 and 1993 Chicago, finally arrives in theaters

There's a bit of fascination with the '90s at the moment, and filmmaker Zeinabu irene Davis (she likes a small "i" on her middle name) believes the re-release of her independent film "Compensation" is well positioned to tap into it.

"The public seems to be really intrigued by the '90s," Davis said. "In a time of uncertainty, the '90s seem to be a nostalgic era before the proliferation of the Internet and of cell phones. I think there's something about how we communicated and had relationships with one another."

Davis was living in Rogers Park and working as a professor in Northwestern University's Radio/Television/Film department when she shot the film in the summer of 1993 at several locations in Chicago and the Indiana Dunes on a budget of less than $100,000 scraped together mostly from grants.

She was only able to devote summers to the project, so it took another six years to complete.

In 1999 the film was screened at several film festivals and for university audiences, but it was never released in theaters.

This time around, the film — with visual and audio enhancements — will begin a six-day run at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Feb. 28 with an initial screening that will feature a Q&A with Davis.

A separate weeklong run at a movie theater in New York City began Feb. 21 and other short runs are planned for various theaters around the country.

"I'm in a group of Black women filmmakers whose work may not have gotten wider distribution, so I think it's our time finally," Davis said.

The film follows the courtship of a hearing man and a deaf woman in 1993, and a twin love story that plays out 83 years earlier.

Michelle A. Banks, who is deaf, and John Earl Jelks play the film's love interests in both eras — Malindy and Arthur during Chicago's peak as "hog butcher for the world," and Malaika and Nico in the Michael Jordan era.

A "meet cute" along the shore of Lake Michigan and an awkward living-room dance lesson set to '90s beats are cinematic moments that might stand out to new audiences.

"I was pleasantly surprised when we screened the rejuvenated film at the New York Film Festival last fall and the majority of the audience were actually younger people in their 20s and 30s," Davis said. "I think they are interested in seeing something different, not necessarily a superhero movie or action movie. They seem more curious about different types of storytelling and different people being at the head of the drama, and that's refreshing and hopeful for me."

Tuberculosis and AIDS play a role in each storyline in the film, something that is sure to strike an "eerie" chord with younger audiences who lived through the pandemic, Davis said.

"There's a way in which the message of resilience and the power of love to endure in difficult times still resonates," Davis said.

"If you believe in love you believe in love, it makes you compensate," Jelks said of the deaf-hearing relationship in the film. A Californian turned South Sider, he now has a recurring role on "Chicago Med" as Dr. Dennis Washington.

The late Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert saw "Compensation" at the Sundance Film Festival and wrote a review in 2000 calling it "a small, quiet, enchanting film about characters who endure and prevail and trust themselves. The style is perfectly suited to the material. It makes you feel good."

Images mined from museum and library archives by Davis of Chicago in the early 1900s also speckle the film.

Restoration of the film was supported by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, famed art-house distributor Janus Films and The Criterion Collection, which hosts a streaming service that will make "Compensation" available to customers at a later undetermined date.

Davis, who frequently writes and lectures on African American cinema, is currently a professor of communications at the University of California San Diego.

Her husband, Marc Arthur Chéry, is the writer behind "Compensation."

Davis and Jelks both have daughters who reflect a younger generation's interest in the film and '90s style.

"It represents how Chicago used to look," Jelks said, noting that some of the clothing styles are back in vogue.

"Time does repeat itself in a way," he said.

The opening screening at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 will include live piano accompaniment by Reginald R. Robinson and a postshow Q&A with Davis, Chéry and Jelks.