At Christmas, black cake is a staple on the table. We admire its dark color, its dense texture, and the aroma of the fruit. Yet behind every slice, someone has planned ahead, measured ingredients, waited, and repeated the same steps over and over. With her short film *Black Cake*, Keisha Bissram asks a question: What becomes of a tradition when the woman who kept it alive is no longer there?
Keisha Bissram recounts a grieving process that goes beyond the absence of a loved one
The film follows Sherry Sankar, an Indo-Caribbean woman grappling with the loss of her mother and profound family upheavals during Christmas. Keisha Bissram does not treat grief as an isolated event. The loss reveals a quiet system: recipes preserved, gatherings organized, tensions absorbed, and traditions upheld—all without us always realizing the effort involved. A mother leaves behind more than just possessions. She may leave behind gestures that no one has learned, responsibilities that have never been named, and a way of holding the family together. The legacy becomes ambiguous: it offers comfort because it connects us to the past, but it can also weigh heavily on those who must carry it forward.
Keisha Bissram Transforms Black Cake into a Domestic Archive
In the filmmaker’s family, her mother lets fruit macerate for several months before the holidays and bakes several cakes. Keisha Bissram explains that she often helped her mother without ever learning the recipe. This detail lies at the heart of the film. Witnessing an action your whole life does not guarantee that you will know how to pass it on. The black cake functions as a paperless archive. It preserves flavors, proportions, patience, and sensory memory. A recipe may specify an amount of rum or a baking time, but it doesn’t necessarily capture the desired texture, the moment when the batter seems ready, or the memories attached to a particular kitchen.
Keisha Bissram Reveals the Invisible Work of Passing on Knowledge
The film offers one interpretation: culture is sustained through domestic and feminine labor. Preparing for celebrations, preserving recipes, passing down music, maintaining family ties, and hosting relatives all take time. Because these tasks are carried out repeatedly in private, they seem natural. *Black Cake* brings them to light. This acknowledgment avoids idealizing Indo-Caribbean women. Keisha Bissram portrays characters who are funny, resilient, and generous, yet also weary, contradictory, or frustrated. They are not guardians of tradition. They can love their families while refusing to make certain sacrifices. This nuance brings the characters to life.
Keisha Bissram views the diaspora as a culture in motion
In the diaspora, preserving a tradition never means replicating it exactly. Ingredients change, schedules adapt, and different generations assign different meanings to rituals. Black cake travels with the family, but it also evolves alongside them. The film goes beyond nostalgia. It doesn’t ask how to preserve the past. It explores how to choose what is worth carrying on. A tradition can foster a sense of belonging while also imposing expectations. Passing it on sometimes means adapting it so that it remains alive, rather than repeating it mechanically.
Keisha Bissram Expands the Caribbean Narrative on Screen
After studying business, Keisha Bissram trained as an actress and rarely saw families like her own in screenplays. So she began writing the roles that were missing. Her approach goes beyond simply adding Indo-Caribbean faces to the screen: she empowers them to drive the plot, the humor, the conflict, and the emotion. *Black Cake* reminds us that accurate representation stems from specific details. The sound of the parang at Christmas, a recipe prepared months in advance, or a quarrel between sisters speaks volumes more than any discourse on identity. The more a story embraces its roots, the more it can resonate beyond its own community.
With Keisha Bissram, the black cake becomes more than just a cultural symbol. It reveals who is carrying on the work of remembrance, what the girls receive, and what they are allowed to transform. One question remains: How many traditions do we think we know, when they still live on in the actions of a single person?
Keisha Bissram is a Trinidadian-American screenwriter, actress, and filmmaker. Her work highlights Indo-Caribbean families and women through stories that explore identity, cultural memory, and intergenerational relationships.
Black Cake follows an Indo-Caribbean woman coping with her mother’s death during the Christmas season. Through grief, family tensions, and the preparation of a traditional cake, the film explores what mothers pass on to their daughters and what may be lost when they are gone.
Black cake is more than just a Christmas dessert. It has become a family archive made up of recipes, traditions, memories, and knowledge passed down orally. In Keisha Bissram’s film, it symbolizes both the Indo-Caribbean cultural heritage and the responsibility of the next generation.
