海角大神

It took a phone call with Steven Spielberg to reassure Titus Kaphar that he was OK. While directing a scene in his debut movie, Mr. Kaphar had endured a breakdown.

鈥淚 literally said, 鈥楥ut鈥� and started sobbing,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淚 had to leave the set, locked myself in a dark room, and just lay there on the floor crying, letting these waves of heaving tears just roll over me.鈥�

Mr. Kaphar鈥檚 drama 鈥淓xhibiting Forgiveness,鈥� which opens in theaters Oct. 18, is inspired by his own life. He wrote the script. It鈥檚 the story of a famous painter who encounters his abusive father, a former drug addict, for the first time in 15 years. A reckoning is overdue.

Andr茅 Holland鈥檚 performance as the artist unlocked something within Mr. Kaphar. As a child, he hadn鈥檛 been allowed to cry. This was new. He reached out to Mr. Spielberg, a new mentor.

鈥淗e told me, 鈥業 cried every day when I did my last film, 鈥淭he Fabelmans.鈥濃�� It was really, really encouraging. And it gave me so much hope in the process,鈥� says Mr. Kaphar during a video call from his Connecticut home.

Today, the filmmaker has many reasons to smile. The premiere for 鈥淓xhibiting Forgiveness鈥� attracted attendees such as Serena Williams and Oprah Winfrey. Mr. Kaphar, a recipient of what鈥檚 often called the 鈥済enius grant鈥� through the MacArthur Foundation, has had his paintings displayed at the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Portrait Gallery in Washington. He also launched an exhibition of artworks from the movie at the Gagosian gallery in Beverly Hills, California.

Reexamining grievances

But critical acclaim for 鈥淓xhibiting Forgiveness鈥� isn鈥檛 as important to the director as his filmmaking journey. It transformed him. To tell the story, Mr. Kaphar had to reexamine his interpretation of grievances he鈥檇 been holding on to. The visually sumptuous movie examines what it takes to pardon wrongdoing.聽

鈥淵ou can pause the film at any moment, and it would be something that you could frame on the wall,鈥� says Alex Mallis, whose unconventional 2022 documentary about Mr. Kaphar, 鈥淪hut Up and Paint,鈥� was also co-directed by its subject. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a surreal movie, but it has surreal emotion. ... You sort of tap into this feeling [of] empathy for who you see on-screen. And you can鈥檛 help but let a little bit of your own emotions seep in, and you see things you recognize big and small from your own life. It feels very specific and yet somehow also universal.鈥�

Before now, the artist鈥檚 difficult childhood in a poor neighborhood of Kalamazoo, Michigan, hadn鈥檛 figured into the biography of his prodigious rise.聽

Famously, Mr. Kaphar was in his mid-20s when he decided to become an artist. The spark? An art history class in junior college. Mr. Kaphar taught himself how to paint by visiting art museums. In 2001, he completed an MFA degree at Yale. He was awarded the 鈥済enius grant鈥� in 2018. His most famous work, 鈥淏ehind the Myth of Benevolence,鈥� is a commentary on Thomas Jefferson鈥檚 relationship with the enslaved woman Sally Hemings. In response to the death of George Floyd and other Black men killed by the police, Time magazine published Mr. Kaphar鈥檚 鈥淎nalogous Colors鈥� on its cover. It depicts a mother holding a baby. The infant鈥檚 silhouette has been cut out of the canvas, leaving a blank space with the outline of its shape.聽

Yet for all the artist鈥檚 success, he was secretly having panic-attack nightmares about his father.聽

鈥淚 would wake up just flailing and hitting the wall,鈥� says Mr. Kaphar. 鈥淚t scared me the moment when I woke up and put a hole in the wall. I realized how bad it really was.鈥�

Deliberate choices

Mr. Kaphar incorporated that detail into the movie. The protagonist, Tarrell Rodin, can鈥檛 shake images of his father鈥檚 drug use and violence toward his mother, Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). The movie itself, however, depicts those flashbacks with impressionistic techniques that create an impression of an assault without actually showing it.

鈥淚 was not going to participate in the kind of gratuitous, salacious violence that I鈥檝e seen in film after film, particularly domestic violence against women,鈥� says the director, who has sought filmmaking advice from supporters such as Mr. Spielberg and Spike Lee. 鈥淲hat we ultimately use is abstraction.鈥�

In the movie, Tarrell has a surprise reunion with his father La鈥橰on (John Earl Jelks) when he takes his wife (Andra Day) and young son to visit his mother. Joyce implores her son to talk with La鈥橰on. Tarrell agrees to meet his father, but only if he can video the conversation. Many of those elements, too, are based on real-life events.聽

鈥淚 went to his house and I started filming him, which in fact is more or less the scene that you see in the movie,鈥� says Mr. Kaphar. 鈥淚 made [a] documentary based on those recordings and felt very dissatisfied with it because it did a very good job of telling us where we were, but not how we got there.鈥�

Mr. Kaphar had long been promising his inquisitive children that, one day, he鈥檇 tell them the story of their grandfather. The artist began waking up each day at 5 a.m. to write for two hours. That narrative about his life became a script. Revisiting those childhood memories conjured up images that inspired him to paint canvases that became part of the movie.

鈥淭he thing that was the revelation is that my father is not the villain of my narrative,鈥� says Mr. Kaphar, who鈥檇 left home to live with relatives in California after witnessing his father commit a 鈥渉einous鈥� act. 鈥淚n my own head, I had set him up to be that.鈥�

While completing the script, Mr. Kaphar started writing and thinking from the perspective of La鈥橰on, the father. Mr. Kaphar realized that there are very few true villains in this world. Thinking back on his own childhood, in which he worked grueling and dangerous handyman jobs alongside his callous father, he recognized that his dad was trying to instill a work ethic to help him succeed in life. He鈥檚 grateful for it. More importantly, Mr. Kaphar now understands that his father loved him.聽

鈥淎 new compassion鈥�

鈥淚 began to realize that my father is as much a victim as I was. My father suffered at the hands of his father and, in fact, did better than his father,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat was difficult for me to accept initially. But by the time I got finished, it was just clear. It was absolutely clear. It meant that I have developed a new compassion and sympathy for my father.鈥�

Mr. Kaphar says that his father has begun a journey toward sobriety, but hasn鈥檛 yet reached the destination. When his mother saw 鈥淓xhibiting Forgiveness,鈥� it deepened their relationship through new mutual understanding. Like his proxy character in the movie, Mr. Kaphar has let go of resentment toward his father. It had a healing effect.

鈥淪ince the film, I haven鈥檛 had any more of those nightmares,鈥� says Mr. Kaphar. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 had one for almost two years now. So I feel very happy about that. My wife is very happy about that. My contractor is not so happy about that!鈥�

Editor鈥檚 note: This article has been updated to correct Titus Kaphar鈥檚 quote, 鈥淭he thing that was the revelation is that my father is not the villain of my narrative.鈥�