Compensation is a 1999 independent drama film produced, co-edited and directed by Zeinabu irene Davis and written by Marc Arthur Chéry.

[6][7] In 1910, Malindy, an educated seamstress who mobilizes against segregation at her school for the deaf, meets and falls in love with Arthur, a hearing man and an illiterate migrant worker from Mississippi.

Both couples revel in the splendor of romance and a possible lifetime commitment, only to be forced to deal with the dreaded diseases of their respective times: tuberculosis and AIDS.

[8] The entire film was shot in Chicago, Illinois to pay tribute to the director's previous residence and to expose audiences to the beauty of the city.

[5][15] A 4K restoration was undertaken by The Criterion Collection, The UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Wimmin With a Mission Productions in conjunction with The Sundance Institute from a scan of the 16mm original camera negative.

"[19] Thomas called the film "an important achievement, illuminating and captivating, and it deserves the chance to see the widest audience possible.

"[19] Ian Grey of the Baltimore City Paper praised Compensation as "brilliant", citing Davis' " use of intertitles and subtitles (for, respectively, the film's early-1900s and present-day sequences) as a way to address the limitations of spoken language while simultaneously honoring contemporary African filmmaking techniques, which emphasize visuals over dialogue.

[21] Poet Elizabeth Alexander commended how the original poem that inspired the film appeared to "move this very contemporary filmmaker narratively to the past but technically forward to innovation".

In showing this, Davis’s film brings great dignity and respect to the situations of African American women and men.

Filming in black-and-white, she develops a virtual historical archeology, lavishly detailed and alive to the aesthetic spirit of the time.