Underneath It All

Abstract

Underneath It All explores relationships in a society that can spill secrets as easily as it can keep them. Josephine’s demons confront her when a man who had been incarcerated for over twenty-five years for the murder of his wife is being released. This event rips through decades-old wounds that Josephine had almost forgotten she had, and her adult daughters try to uncover why this is so catastrophic for her. Against a lush backdrop of verdant mountains, gushing waterfalls and cerulean seas, the impending release looms like a pregnant cloud. Meanwhile, these women navigate spaces where traumatic insecurities linger. There is tension among them. They live with violence, with grief. They live with memory, with shame, with alcoholism, with homelessness. They’re negotiating notions of societal expectations of female sexuality, their bodies resisting conformance. These women’s lives interrogate human vulnerabilities and the value of support systems. Amidst chaos, there is discovery of self. There is forgiveness. Above all, there is love.