Author: blackcinemaconnection

Cinnamon

Release Date:  6/11/23 – Tribeca Film Festival; 6/17/23 – American Black Film Festival;
6/23/23 – Tubi
Genre:  Thriller
Rating:   NR
Running Time:  91 mins.
Director:  Bryian Keith Montgomery, Jr.
Studio(s):  Village Roadshow Pictures, Tubi TV

Cast: Pam Grier (Mama), Hailey Kilgore (Jodi Jackson), David Iacono (Eddie), Jeremie Harris (James Walker), Damon Wayans (Wally).

Story:  Cinnamon centers on Jodi, a young woman who is frustrated and stuck in a dead-end job with her dreams slipping away.  Then she meets Eddie, a hustler who quickly becomes her fiercely devoted boyfriend.  The couple, desperate to start a new life and jumpstart Jodi’s singing career, make the fateful decision to commit a crime together but their plan quickly goes sideways.  Jodi and Eddie have unknowingly unleashed a spiraling chain of events that quickly makes them the target of a ruthless family run crime organization.  Mama, the undisputed head of the organization and her son James will stop at nothing to find out what went wrong.  As James begins to uncover the truth, no one is safe and secrets are revealed leading to a deadly showdown where Jodi and Eddie must answer for their crime.  The noir thriller marks the first film released under Village Roadshow and Tubi’s Black Noir Cinema banner.  Sources:  Variety.com; Deadline.com.

Trailer:

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Mary J. Blige’s Strength of A Woman

Release Date:  6/17/23; Lifetime
Genre:  Romance
Rating:   NR
Director:  Shari L. Carpenter
Studio(s):  Blue Butterfly, Davis Entertainment, Front Street Pictures, Lifetime, Sony Pictures Television
Cast:  Da’Vinchi (Ben), Ajiona Alexus (Kendra)

Story:  The story of Kendra and Ben continues in Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman.  Jumping ahead more than 15 years, now a successful photographer, Kendra finds herself in a failing marriage and must reckon with the decisions she made for the life she thought she wanted. When Ben unexpectedly comes back into her life, she is forced to a crisis point and must dig deep to find the strength to take control of her life and accept the love Ben may be offering again.  Source:  Lifetime.com, vibe.com.

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The Perfect Find

Release Date:  6/23/23; Netflix
Genre:  Romance
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  99 mins.
Director:   Numa Perrier
Studio(s):  Confluential Films, AGC Studios, I’ll Have Another, Netflix

Cast:  Gabrielle Union (Jenna), Gina Torres (Darcy), Keith Powers (Eric), D.B. Woodside (Brian), Aisha Hinds (Billie), La La Anthony (Elodie), Tyler Antonius (Ronnie), Janet Hubert (Monica), Devale Ellis (Dialo).

Story:  After a messy public breakup and a high-profile firing, Jenna returns to New York to resurrect her fashion career. Knowing she will only get one chance to rebuild her reputation, Jenna swallows her pride and goes to work for cutthroat mogul Darcy. But her comeback attempt gets complicated when she falls for her charming, much younger coworker Eric – who just so happens to be Darcy’s son. After putting everything on the line for her career, Jenna must decide if she will risk it all on a secret romance, and find out if she can have a future with Eric despite their generational divide.  Source:  IMDB.  Photo Source:  blackfilmandtv.com.

Trailer:

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The Blackening

Release Date:  6/16/23; In Theaters
(Original Release Date:  9/16/22 – Toronto International Film Festival)
Genre:  Horror/Comedy
Rating:   NR
Running Time:  96 mins.
Director:  Tim Story
Studio(s):  Catchlight Studios, Lionsgate, MRC Film, Media Rights Capital (MRC), The Story Company.

Cast:  Grace Byers (Allison), Jermaine Fowler (Clifton), Melvin Gregg (King), X Mayo (Shanika), Dewayne Perkins (Dewayne), Antoinette Robertson (Lisa), Sinqua Walls (Nnamdi), Jay Pharoah (Shawn), Yvonne Orji (Morgan), Diedrich Bader (Officer White), James Preston Rogers (Camden Conner).

Story:  Based on the 2018 short film of the same name by the comedy troupe 3Peat, The Blackening centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherf****** game.  The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?  Source(s):  official site, theblackening.movie, Wikipedia.

Trailer:

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The House Behind The Cedars

Release Date:  12/6/1924
Genre:  Drama
Director:  Oscar Micheaux
Studio(s):  Micheaux Film Corp.
Running Time:  Unknown
Silent
Black & White

Cast:  Shingzie Howard (Rena Walden), Andrew Bishop (George Tryon), Lawrence Chenault (John Walden), Alma Sewell, William Crowell, Douglas Griffin, Oliver Hill.

Story:  Rena, a beautiful, mixed-race woman who “passes” as white, receives a proposal from an aristocratic white millionaire who has fallen in love with her. Rena accepts without revealing the secret of her racial background. Unhappy, she returns to her former lover, Frank Fowler, a black man who has risen to power “despite his color”.  She tells him that although she has fooled the public, she has not fooled herself.

Details:  The House Behind the Cedars, was adapted by Oscar Micheaux from the novel of the same name by Charles Chestnutt, published by installments in the Chicago Defender. Although the film was based on Chestnutt’s novel, Micheaux capitalized on a timely news story by adding a top line to the billing which read, “The Rhinelander Case.” This referred to the 1925 Rhinelander v. Rhinelander trial, which involved a light-skinned, mixed-race woman named Alice Jones, who had married a wealthy white man named Kip Rhinelander. Rhinelander attempted to annul their marriage after his disapproving parents threatened to disinherit him; Micheaux took advantage of the similarities between the news story and his film to boost ticket sales, as noted in the December 2, 1925 issue of Variety, which announced that a new short film called The Rhinelander Case was soon to be released by the Bejack Film Co.

This film is considered lost.

Source:  AFI Catalog (catalog.afi.com).

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Black Angels

a/k/a Black Bikers From Hell

Release Date:  October 14, 1970
Genre:  Drama
Rating:   R
Running Time:  87 mins.
Director:  Laurence Merrick
Studio(s):  Merrick International Pictures
Cast:  Bobby Johnson, Des Roberts, John King III, Linda Jackson

Story:  For years, two motorcycle gangs–the white Serpents and the black Choppers–have been locked in a fierce rivalry, united only by their mutual hatred for a local police officer, Lieutenant Harper, who would like to see the two groups destroy each other. When a newly-initiated Chopper is killed in a fight with Chainer, the leader of the Serpents, Harper’s wish moves closer to becoming a reality. After the Serpents accept new biker Johnny Reb into their ranks, they ride into town to mete out punishment to a renegade member. There Chainer is ambushed by four Choppers, but Johnny Red mysteriously appears and saves his life. Returning to their hideout, the gang launches a wild party, which Johnny Reb further enlivens by passing out illegal pills. As the gang eventually becomes drowsy and vulnerable from the pills’ aftereffects, one of the cyclists, Frenchy, discovers that Johnny Reb is actually a black Chopper passing for white. Before Frenchy can warn the others, however, Johnny Reb stabs him to death and then signals the Choppers to attack. The two evenly matched gangs massacre each other while Lieutenant Harper happily observes the bloodbath from a distant hilltop.  Source:  tcm.com; Photo Source:  IMDB.

Trailer:

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