Library of Congress Selects Zeinabu Davis’ “Compensation” for National Film Registry

“It’s a really huge honor and I don’t take it lightly,” said Davis, who has taught for the Department of Communication in the School of Social Sciences since 1999. 

One of the first feature films to cast a Black Deaf actress in a leading role, “Compensation” spans the 20th century and explores the love stories of two couples in Chicago 80 years apart, in the early 1900s and the 1990s. Each couple consists of a deaf woman and a hearing man who navigate romance, racism and prejudice, and the pandemics of their respective eras: tuberculosis and AIDS.

“The film is about the power of love to endure and be resilient,” Davis said. “The idea that there is hope and resilience in the midst of a pandemic, which is what we just went through not too long ago, I think that message still has a pretty big impact on audiences today.”

Davis did not know her film had been nominated and was surprised to receive the news, she said, in a Facebook message from Jacqueline Stewart, the chair of the National Film Preservation Board. Their paths had crossed in Chicago over 25 years ago, Davis explained, while Davis was teaching at Northwestern University; Stewart was an early fan of “Compensation” and even featured a still from the film on the cover of her book “Migrating to the Movies.” So it was a “full circle” moment for Davis, she said, to learn from Stewart that “Compensation” had been added to the National Film Registry.

Hailed by the New Yorker as “one of the greatest American independent films ever made” and the Los Angeles Times as “an important achievement, illuminating and captivating,” the film has been beloved by audiences for years. 

“I’m so, so happy to see this important film get the recognition it deserves,” said Carol Padden, dean of the School of Social Sciences, who is also a Communication faculty member. “I’ve seen the movie maybe 10 times since it first came out,” she added. “The cinematography is beautiful, the acting is deeply genuine, and the story is a moving one. There are also powerfully evocative scenes in sign language with Deaf actors, and that’s an aspect I’ve especially enjoyed.” 

Patrick Anderson, Department of Communication chair, added that it is especially rare for living filmmakers to join the National Film Registry. “The list of other films inducted this year (and the list of previously included films) reads like a history of the most important, influential, and celebrated films ever made,” Anderson said. “This honor is so well-deserved. Davis’ films are masterpieces. And equally importantly, her work as a teacher and director is a beacon of light in this world.”

4k “Rejuvenation”: A Labor of Love

A lot has changed since “Compensation” was initially screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000, including the film itself. Davis has been working closely with Janus Films and The Criterion Collection on a 4k digital restoration, which is the version that will be preserved by the Library of Congress and is screening around the nation.

“I’m not calling it a restoration, though,” Davis said. “I’m calling it a rejuvenation because it’s been made even better than what it was before.” She and her team worked for months to prepare the film for the big screen – it has never been released in theaters until this year. Davis even enlisted her daughters to help color-correct the original 16mm footage and write subtitles to describe the soundtrack’s emotional tones, building in an additional element of accessibility. “I couldn’t have done it without my daughters,” Davis said, “or the rest of the team.”

Davis hopes today’s audiences, who are more accustomed to reading subtitles and text on screen, will be able to fully immerse themselves in the film’s message: “It’s time for audiences to actually be able to enjoy it in the way that we meant it to be presented.

Roger Ebert.com writes that the restored film “is overflowing with romance, poeticism, innocence, and heartache… The Black community to independent filmmakers to those battling autoimmune illnesses will all be able to resonate with reflections of themselves on screen.”

Davis is especially proud of how “Compensation” acts as an homage to early silent films. “Deaf people were the stars of silent cinema because they knew how to use their hands, their bodies, their facial expressions to get people to interact with cinema,” she said. “In my little way, I’m trying to rewrite early cinema history with Compensation because there were Black performers, there were Black filmmakers, there were people of color that helped to form early cinema and what it would become, but they’re not recognized.”

Aside from filmmaking, Davis enjoys teaching production and film studies courses. Recent offerings have included “Documentary Sketchbook,” “Studio TV,” “Black Women Filmmakers,” and “Examining Marvel’s Black Panther.”

In her work as a teacher, she hopes to empower students to collaborate with each other and create media that is meaningful to them. “If it’s a story that is representative of your experience and the community that you come from,” Davis said, “that’s the story that you need to tell.”

The rejuvenated version of “Compensation” is screening in theaters nationwide for the first time. The New York Times, calling the film “still rebellious” and “a beautifully woven drama,” awarded “Compensation” a Critic’s Pick after its initial screening at the Lincoln Center in February 2025. The film will be screened locally at the Digital Gym Cinema in UC San Diego’s Park & Market in May 2025 and have a Blu-Ray release in August. To get a glimpse of “Compensation” before then, check out its updated trailer.