By Bryon Cherry OnMilwaukee Contributor Published Oct 28, 2018 at 12:46 PM

Little moments are all that we have, and through small swaths of those moments, "My Name is Myeisha" spins an all too familiar sad story into gold.

The film – told through the implications crafted by race in America, backed by hip-hop beatboxing and hypnotic movements – largely revolves around the translucent work of actress Rhaechyl Walker and the muscular mechanical nature of John Merchant’s depiction of multiple characters throughout the film.

Director Gus Krieger pretty much lets the film smolder with the fluid-like tone of Myeisha’s words as she, and the cold calculated nature of Merchant's reading of the facts of the case at the center of this tale, haunts the screen. In regards to those facts, they apparently were the only pieces salvaged from the 1998 death of Tyisha Miller of which the film is based.

Myeisha starts at the end and somehow weaves its way back by dancing and hip-hopping through scenes of Myeisha’s youth and her not-at-all promised future.  The juxtaposition of Walker's emotional and loose cadence and the rote physicality of Merchant’s characters some how meld seamlessly. The tapestry woven from that seamlessness was one which seems to be searching for the true meaning of life.

At times, Merchant's beatboxing would flow into familiar hip-hop and R&B songs from the time period. It was as if audience members who recognized the songs were shocked back into the realization that, at the center of the film, is a true story of a real life with the same songs that they listened to back then.

After a while, the effect is hallucinatory, the effect of seeing the same man (Merchant) everywhere jarring. Merchant took root wherever he was planted – be it as a mad homeless revelator, a collected cop, a surgical coroner or a dude doing hip-hop. It is somehow a joy to watch him read through the clinical nature of Myeisha’s bullet entry and exit wounds.

Even if one does not speak hip-hop, they are still ensnared in a trip through one girl’s life, which mattered. The resonance of "My Name is Myeisha" sounds differently than other films focused on this type of death. It butterflied only around her joys and sorrows and did not make any explicit plea for justice.

"Did you ever have one of those dreams where nothing comes out when you scream," Myeisha says throughout the film. The audience is almost trapped in her dream, seeing themselves in the quiet moments, doubts and hopes which buck in a typical teenager’s life. The movie went to lengths to show that she was just that a typical teenager.

We see it in her annoyed and amused interactions with her older family members. The trail appears in a hilarious diatribe about black women’s hair. Spoiler alert: The takeaway is do not touch it!

Movement and music were of course at the center of the musical. And at the center of that is Walker who displays such subtle and locking body control that the audience member’s eyes are always attached to her.  

The film asks what is a life and where does a life end. The title character even finds hope in what is becoming the ever-growing litany of her bullet wounds' descriptions. She believes she will survive them all and use the wounds as a badge which will catapult her to hip-hop fame. Towards the beginning of the story's descent into tragedy, we see home movies of an infant, a toddler and a pre-teen Myeisha. The audience does not know if they contain footage of the real-life victim Miller, making the home movies hit even harder.

The tension of will we see Myeisha get shot hangs over nearly the entirety of the film. We do. When it comes, strains of "Oh, Holy Night" waft into the scene. We see fear in the police officer’s eyes. We see fear in Myeisha’s movements. For a moment, it is quiet and then the audience is left to take in every bullet that they heard meticulously described earlier in the picture.

Walker attended the Milwaukee Film Festival showing Saturday night and she talked back to the Oriental Theatre audience after the film went black. She embodies Myeisha; she's played her for about five years as a part of the stage play "Dreamscape" that the film is based on. This dedication to character was evident; she vividly helped Myeisha (and Tyeisha really) vibrate from the screen.

"My Name is Myeisha" is a swim across a sometimes brutal but joyful sea which will bear gifts for those that make the crossing.

"My Name is Myeisha" will screen one more time at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. at the Jan Serr Studio Cinema.