IWOW: I Walk On Water

Since 2011, filmmaker and photographer Khalik Allah has attracted global attention for his radiant portraits of the denizens of 125th and Lexington in East Harlem. In IWOW: I Walk On Water, Allah returns to the intersection and centers his attention on longtime muse Frenchie, a 60-something schizophrenic, homeless Haitian man. Over the summer of 2019, Allah and Frenchie flout societal boundaries as their material lives became increasingly intertwined. A radically transparent record of that time, IWOW also documents a romantic relationship that coincides with the shoot and finds Allah gathering advice from a number of confidants, including Fab 5 Freddy, members of the Wu-Tang Clan, and his mother. Sometimes painful in its vulnerability, often funny in its candor, and always beautiful to behold, Allah’s stunning epic is a contemporary rethinking of the diary film. (True/False Film Festival)