The Photograph feels like a long time coming.

The film follows two generations of love: Christina (Chant Adams) falls in love with her beau Isaac (Ylan Noel) but pursues a career in photography instead of settling for the housewife title. Christinas daughter, Mae (Issa Rae), navigates a budding romance with Michael (LaKeith Stanfield) while trying to avoid making the same mistakes in love her mother did.

The Photograph is a dreamy, feel-good love story reminiscent of Black cinema of the late 1990s and early 2000s. It sees Black love as normal and able to exist without having to use extremes as an incubator. The love in The Photograph feels accessible. Though it has its funny moments, it isnt a romantic comedy. It understands love enough to acknowledge the balance of levity and heaviness. And though its overarching tone is urgent, it isnt seeped in trauma and pain. No one is killed, thankfully. The films most painful moments are caused by a longing to love or be loved. And it capitalizes on the romantic drama genre, something that audiences havent seen on the big screen from Black filmmakers in recent years.

Director Stella Meghie was purposeful in her approach. Inspired by her grandmothers 30-year separation from her daughter, she based the film off one question : What would it be like if you thought about someone every single day for 30 years but didnt see them and love them? Meghie loves love, so instinctually she converted the premise from familial to romantic.

I went into this crafting this story, wanting it to be a romantic drama, wanting to tell a romantic drama, the Toronto native told HuffPost. And then adding that kind of family layer to it to explore how cyclical love can be, and how you love, and incorporating some of the feelings of, personally, what I was witnessing with, things that I was going through.