‘Cross My Heart’ confronts the assumption of a safe home

Apr 23

Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse

Sontenish Myers explores how home can be turned into a prison when it’s the venue of stolen youth and womanhood.

Jordan-Amanda Hall and Jhada Ann Walker in Cross My Heart Source: Sontenish Myers — Jordan-Amanda Hall and Jhada Ann Walker in *Cross My Heart*
Source: Sontenish Myers

When innocent heroines are harmed, it’s natural to want the villain of the story to pay for the pain he causes. The lack of vindication and resolution in Cross My Heart is reflective of how chronic abuse plays out when victims are silenced by circumstance and lifelong power dynamics.

The film plays out as more of a study of the dynamics within a home – a well-off, religious, seemingly functional home in this case – when there is an adult family ram preying on an innocent young girl.

In Cross My Heart, Julette (Jordan-Amanda Hall) visits her family in Jamaica to find that the relationships she cherished are now tainted with this secret. Her instinct is to flip the table and blow the whole thing up, but she’s left to consider what life would be like for her cousin Sarah (Jhada Ann Walker) when her trip ends and she travels back to America.

Watch the award-winning short below (run time 13:34):

Sontenish Myers is a Jamaican-American writer-director based in Harlem, NY. She is a graduate of NYU's Graduate Film program where she’s now an adjunct professor. In her work, racial identity, womanhood, power dynamics, and the heroic journey are often explored. Watch more films from filmmaker Sontenish Myers on her website.