Category: Upcoming Films

Apple Mortgage Cake

Apple Mortgage Cake

Release Date:  April 20, 2014 (UP Network)
Genre:  Drama/Based on true events
Rating:  Unknown
Running Time:  Unknown
Studio: UP TV Network
Director:  Michael Scott
Cast:  Kimberly Elise (Angela)
Kevin Hanchard (Melvin)
Lamar Johnson (Nicolas)
Stephan James (William)
A.J. Saudin (Marcus)

        Story:  According to the official site:

The inspirational true story of a woman who decides to bake 100 apple cakes and sell them at $40 each in order to save her home – and how this idea completely changes her and her family.

Angela is a single, working mom with three teenage boys.  She juggles various jobs and helps with employment counseling at the local Mission. While thrilled to be in the family home where she learned to bake, the house is falling apart, with sections deemed uninhabitable by inspectors after storm and flood damage. Plus, the car just decided not to start – and the boys all still need shoes, books and food.

She has always made due until now – when her lender calls in the mortgage loan and puts her into foreclosure. Angela has 10 days to come up with $4000 or she loses her home. This is the true story of a woman who decides to bake 100 apple cakes and sell them at $40 each in order to save her home – and how this idea completely changes her and her family.

Word of her “bake sale” soon spreads to the news, locally, nationally and internationally. Orders fly in from all over the world. Angela is taken off guard by the overwhelming support. But soon, this fiercely independent woman learns to depend on the kindness and love of others that comes her way, particularly when the community and local businesses rally around Angela to help her finish and ship the initial stack of orders.  Source(s):  uptv, official site; IMDB.

Trailer

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Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

Da Sweet Blood of Jesusa/k/a The Sweet Blood of Jesus

Release Date:  2/13/15 Theatrical Release, VOD; 6/22/14 (American Black Film Festival ABFF)
Genre:  Romance/Comedy/Horror
Rating:  Not Available
Running Time:  123 mins.
Studio:  40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, Gravitas Ventures
Director:  Spike Lee

Cast:   Stephen Tyrone Williams (Dr. Hess Greene), Zaraah Abrahams (Ganja Hightower), Rami Malek (Seneschal Higginbottom), Elvis Nolasco (Lafayette Hightower), Thomas Jefferson Byrd (Bishop Zee), Joie Lee (Nurse Colquitt), Felicia Snoop Pearson (Lucky Mays), Jeni Perillo (Sahara Paysinger).

Update:  Shadow & Act reported on 11/19/14, the synopsis reads: “A Spike Lee Joint, DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS is a new kind of love story, one that centers on an addiction to blood that once doomed a long forgotten ancient African tribe. When Dr. Hess Green (Stephen Tyrone Williams) is introduced to a mysteriously cursed artifact by an art curator, Lafayette Hightower (Elvis Nolasco), he is uncontrollably drawn into a newfound thirst for blood that overwhelms his soul.  He however is not a vampire.  Lafayette quickly succumbs to the ravenous nature of the infliction but leaves Hess a transformed man.  Soon Lafayette’s wife, Ganja Hightower (Zaraah Abrahams), comes looking for her husband and becomes involved in a dangerous romance with Hess that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status in our seemingly sophisticated society.  A reinterpretation of Bill Gunn’s horror cult film “Ganja & Hess”, which played as a Critics’ Choice at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee’s stylized thriller features an Original Score by Bruce Hornsby.”

The movie got ripped really hard by critics when it debuted this summer at the annual American Black Film Festival. That said, after ABFF there was some question whether the film would find distribution at all.  Gravitas will release the film theatrically and on video on demand, starting on February 13, 2015.  Source(s):  Shadow and Act.  Poster:  IMDB.

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Blood First

Blood firstRelease Date:  10/14/14
Genre:  Drama/Crime
Rating:  R
Running time:  90 mins.
Studio(s):  NaRa Films, Entertainment One; N.S.U.C. Entertainment Group
Director: Najaa Young
Producer(s):  Rasheed A. Jihad, Najaa Young
Cast:  Edwin Lee Gibson (Raqmaan)
Aki Jamal Durham (Rico, age 35)
Carter Redwood (Rico, age 17)
Lamar Darnell Fields (O, age 30)
Sundiata Rice (O, age 12)

Story:  Rico and O may have different mothers but their brotherly bond is strong. Their father, Raqmaan, has schooled the boys in the ways of life and the streets making them wise business men and ruthless killers. When the brothers learn that one of their associates has decided to cooperate with a federal investigation, Rico and O must decide whether to run, fight the charges or snitch on those closest to them… testing the true meaning of loyalty, honor and blood.  Source: bloodfirstthemovie.com, official site.

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The Retrieval

The Retrievala/k/a September Morning
Release Date:  (February 3, 2015; DVD) (April 2, 2014; Theatrical Release)
(April 5, 2013, Film Festival)
Genre: Drama/Historical
Rating: Unknown
Running Time: 92 mins.
Studio: Doki-Doki Productions/Sixth Street Films/ Variance Films
Director: Chris Eska
Cast:  Tishuan Scott (Nate), Ashton Sanders (Will), Keston John (Marcus), Bill Oberst, Jr. (Burrell), Christine Horn (Rachel).

Story: 1864: as war ravages the nation, on the outskirts of the Civil War business as usual continues for slave-owners and traders. The Retrieval follows Will, a fatherless 13 year-old boy, who survives by working with a white bounty hunter gang who sends him to earn the trust of runaway slaves in order to lure them back to the South.

On a dangerous mission into the free North to find Nate, a fugitive freedman, things go wrong and Will and Nate find themselves on the run. As the bond between them unexpectedly grows, Will becomes consumed by conflicting emotions as he faces a gut-wrenching final decision. Source: theretrieval.com, the official site; IMDB.

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A Day Late and a Dollar Short

A Day Late and A Dollar ShortRelease Date: April 19, 2014 (Lifetime)
Genre: Drama
Rating: N/R
Studio: Lifetime Television
Director: Stephen Tolkin

Cast: Whoopi Goldberg (Viola), Lyriq Bent (Randall), Ving Rhames (Cecil),  Mekhi Phifer (Lewis), Anika Noni Rose Rose (Paris), Kimberly Elise (Janelle), Tichina Arnold (Charlotte).

Story:  Based on The New York Times bestseller by Terry McMillan. When irascible matriarch Viola Price learns that her next asthma attack will likely kill her, she is determined to fix her fractured family before she leaves this world, from her relationship with her husband to the lives of her four children and grandchildren. Viola must contend with sibling rivalry, teen pregnancy and drug addiction with one child while her jailbird son needs to learn how to be a better father, her granddaughter is in bigger trouble than her daughter is willing to admit and Viola’s estranged husband needs saving from his scheming younger girlfriend. Viola won’t have an easy time bending her loved ones to her will. Source: Shadow and Act. Photo: mylifetime.com

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Jimi: All Is By My Side

All is by my sidea/k/a All Is By My Side
Release Date:  9/26/14 (Theatrical)
Genre: Drama/Biography
Running Time: 118 mins.
Studio: Darko Entertainment
Director: John Ridley
Cast: André Benjamin (Jimi Hendrix), Hayley Atwell (Kathy Etchingham), Imogen Poots (Linda Keith), Burn Gorman (Michael Jeffery), Ruth Negga (Ida), Ashley Charles (Keith Richards).

Details: As reported by Shockya, Jimi: All is By My Side is written and directed by Academy Award Winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave). The film takes place between 1966 and 1967, when Hendrix made his big splash overseas in the UK. The movie features Hendrix’s covers of Muddy Waters, the Beatles and others, but none of Hendrix’s own songs–Experience Hendrix, LLC, which manages the Hendrix estate, didn’t allow his songs to be used in the film.

The film debuted in September 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival and premiered in the US at the SXSW Festival on March 12, 2014.

On March 12, 2014, Slashfilm reported that just as John Ridley’s unauthorized Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side is playing SXSW, the late musician’s estate has moved to develop a new authorized Jimi Hendrix biopic. This isn’t the first time there has been a move to make a film with the blessing of the estate. At one point Anthony Mackie was set to star and Paul Greengrass to direct a project that would have featured the full suite of Hendrix songs. But the movie died on the vine. Now the estate has signed with a new agency and Deadline reports that the machinery is in motion to create an authorized biopic.

Shadow and Act stated the film that will be produced under the new deal will be the first authorized by Experience Hendrix LLC, and will have their full cooperation, and thus, will include many of Hendrix’s original classics.  Past actors whose names have been attached to Hendrix projects include Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and Anthony Mackie. Source(s): Entertainment Weekly; Shockyo.com; Slashfilm; Shadow and Act. Image: Entertainment Weekly.

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Movie Clip:

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