The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy

Part of Fearless Humanity: Early Films by Black Women in the US

The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy follows three Puerto Rican brothers in upstate New York who are roped into helping an elderly Irish lady restore her house. Director Kathleen Collins was a legendary Black filmmaker whose films, The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy and Losing Ground, are counted as some of the earliest cinematic work by an African American woman. She died of cancer in her 40s, leaving behind these two movies as the remnants of one of the US’s most sensitive and playful artists. Newly restored with luscious greens, The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy is a stunning film with consistently inventive and surprising cinematography choices. The filmmaking is at once formally bold and relaxed, making time for long conversations with ghosts as well as one of the brother’s obsession with lunch. Kathleen Collins manages to depict ordinary, relatable, working-class people, while evoking the spiritual realm and the magic of unconventional connections.