Suzanne, Suzanne

This insightful 30-minute documentary, Suzanne, Suzanne, profiles a young black woman, Suzanne Browning, as she confronts a legacy of physical abuse and its role in her descent into substance abuse. The film was conceived by Browning's aunt, Camille Billops, as a sort of cinematic drug intervention. Family remembrances revealed the truth behind the addiction: Suzanne and her mother were victims of domestic abuse at the hands of the family patriarch. Armed with the key to her own self-destructive behavior, Suzanne struggles to understand her father's brutality and her mother's passive complicity. After years of silence, Suzanne and her mother are finally able to share their painful experiences with each other in an intensely moving moment of truth.

Directed by Billops and James Hatch, this film essay captures the essence of a black middle-class family in crisis.

Suzanne, Suzanne was added to the National Film Registry in 2016.