The Golden Age of Fish

Everson is a master in making short or even very short essays. Sometimes he needs no more than a minute and a few shots to clarify a standpoint or a feeling. He tells without frills, but you can’t call it minimal. The images, occasionally no more than fragments, are too poetic and atmospheric for that. He also has a theme all of his own. To put it simply: the life and survival of the black population of America.
In this film, Everson remains faithful to his approach, despite the length. The film is made up of very varied fragments that are closely related to his short work. Black & white and colour, historic and new material are interwoven with a supple hand.
The location is Cleveland, Ohio. Sometimes as an archaeologist, then as a journalist or poet, he investigates the lives of black Americans in this place in the present and past. A black geologist is given the role of narrator. She links various narrative lines together. The title is borrowed from objects from the Devonian period, belonging to the geologist: so-called Cleveland shales (fragile fragments of rock). In this era, about 417 to 354 million years ago, many new types of fish made their appearance. An ironic detail, because in the meantime Everson tackles more recent and less golden ages. (GjZ)