Category: Upcoming Films

A Stray

A StrayRelease Date:  8/5/16; Blackstar Film Festival
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  82 mins.
Director:  Musa Syeed
Studio:  Vilcek Foundation

Cast:   Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Christina Baldwin, Ayla, Fathia Absie, Jamaal “Happy Khalif” Farah, Abdullahi Haji-Mohamed, Ifrah Mansour, Rhiana Yazzie, George McCauley.

Story:  In Minneapolis’ large Somali refugee community, Adan has nowhere to go.  His mom kicked him out, and his friends are tired of his headstrong ways.  As a last resort, he moves into the mosque, praying for a little help.  Surprisingly, God seems to answer.  Adan quickly lands a good job, devout friends, and a newfound faith.  When Adan nearly hits a stray dog on the job, he’s forced to take it in for a night.  But one of his new mosque friends considers the dog impure, and he throws Adan out.  With Adan back on the streets, surrounded by his old crew, ex-girlfriends, prying FBI agents, and his estranged family, the dog may be his only friend as he tries to keep his faith and get through the night.  Source(s):  sxsw.com.

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9 Rides

9 RidesRelease Date:  8/7/16; Blackstar Film Festival (2015)
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  86 mins.
Director:  Matthew A. Cherry
Studio(s):   Cherry Entertainment, Datari Turner Productions, J Caldwell Productions, Twice Told Films.

Cast:  Dorian Missick (Driver), Omar Dorsey (Uber Pool Man), Robinne Lee (Girlfriend), Xosha Roquemore (Hipster Woman), Amin Joseph (Friend), Skye P. Marshall (Abused Woman), Thomas Q. Jones (Abusive Man), Tracie Thoms (Fiancee), Aasha Davis (Flirty Woman), Sujata Day (Sleepy Woman).

Story:  An Uber driver clocks in to work on New Year’s Eve, the busiest night of the year. The night takes him all across the city as he transports nine different groups of  passengers who help him come to terms with life changing news.  Source(s):  sxsw.com.

Teaser Trailer:

 

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Jason and Shirley

Jason and Shirley stillRelease Date:  8/7/16; Blackstar Film Festival (2015)
Genre:  Biography/Drama
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  79 mins.
Black & White
Director:  Stephen Winter
Cast:  Jack Waters, Sarah Schulman, Eamon Fahey, Tristan Cowen, Tony Torn, Peter Cramer, Mike Bailey-Gates, Bryan Webster, Denise Dixon, Orran Farmer.

Story:  Based on a true story, Jason and Shirley thrillingly recreates the dark, electrifying, take-no-prisoners 1966 power struggle between Jewish, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, Shirley Clarke and her subject, Jason Holiday, a fierce black gay queen over a 12-hour marathon filming session which gave rise to Clarke’s iconic documentary Portrait of Jason.

When Academy Award-winning filmmaker Shirley Clarke made her groundbreaking avant-garde documentary, it was the first-ever feature film about being a black gay man.  Her subject was raconteur, entertainer, and self-professed hustler, Jason Holliday, whom Clarke interviewed for twelve hours straight in her Chelsea Hotel penthouse.

Over the course of the evening, questions went from the anodyne (“What do you for a living, Jason?”) to the arch (“Why you’d do that to me? Rotten queen!”).  In the final product, we see only Holliday onscreen, smoking joints and drinking copious amounts of whiskey as he seems to suffer a slow breakdown at the hands of Clarke and a co-interviewer.  Source(s):  Official Facebook page; NPR; IMDB.

Trailer:

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Pioneers of African-American Cinema

Pioneers of African-American CinemaRelease Date:  7/26/16; DVD & Blu-Ray

Running Time:  952 mins

Studio:   Kino Lorber

Details:   This collection of the historically vital works of America’s legendary first African-American filmmakers is the only one of its kind.  Funded in part by a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, the packaged set includes no fewer than a dozen feature-length films and nearly twice as many shorts and rare fragments. Subject matter includes race issues that went unaddressed by Hollywood for decades. The 5 disc set, which is executive produced by Paul D. Miller and curated by historians Dr. Jacqueline Stewart of the University of Chicago and Charles Musser of Yale University of 25 films, were restored from HD masters (transferred from archival elements preserved by several leading archives, including the Library of Congress), and is the first major collection of race films to be remastered. 

The film to be included in the set are: Birthright (1938), The Blood of Jesus (1941), Body and Soul (1925), The Bronze Buckaroo (1939), By Right of Birth (fragment, 1921), Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort, South Carolina (excerpt, 1940), The Darktown Revue (1931), Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA (1946), Eleven P.M. (1930), The Exile (1931), The Flying Ace (1926), God’s Step Children (1938), Heaven-Bound Traveler (1933), Hellbound Train (1930), Hot Biskits (1931), Mercy the Mummy Mumbled (1918), Regeneration (fragment, 1923), The Scar of Shame (1929), S.S. Jones Home Movies (1924-26), The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), Ten Minutes to Live (1932), Ten Nights in a Bar Room (1926), Two Knights of Vaudeville (1918), Veiled Aristocrats (1932), Verdict Not Guilty (1934), We Work Again (1937), Within Our Gates (1920).

Bonus features include: optional English subtitles, an 80-page booklet with essays and detailed film notes, interviews with series curators Professors Musser and Stewart, a documentary on the restoration of the films, a documentary on the restoration efforts of the Library of Congress, an archival interview with actors Ethel and Lucia Moses (from 1978), Tyler Texas Black Film Collection promo film (with Ossie Davis, from 1985) and more.

Source(s):  Shadow and Act; Amazon.

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A Weekend With The Family

a/k/a Dinner with the Stankershets

A Weekend With The Family

Release Date:  7/17/16; TV One
Genre:  Romance/Comedy
Rating:  NR
Director:  Chris Stokes
Studio:  Footage Films

Cast:  Marques Houston (Travis Stankershet), Karrueche Tran (Courtney Clancy), Wendy Raquel Robinson (Nip Stankershet), Clifton Powell (Dingo Stankershet), Dorien Wilson (John Clancy), Suzanne Whang (Sue Clancy), Black Thomas (Sargent Stankershet), Chantel Jeffries (Catherine Clancy), Shondrella Avery (Rosie).

Story:  Film follows Travis Stankershet (Marques Houston) a young attorney who looks to gain a position at a prestigious law firm. Travis’ loving girlfriend Courtney Clancy (Karrueche Tran) decides to arrange a surprise family weekend get-together, however things don’t go as planned with the arrival of his outlandish family, the Stankershets.  When Far East customs come up against the salt of the earth folks from the Deep South, hilarity ensues. In the end, Travis must find a way to make the two families peacefully co-exist long enough for him to propose to the woman he loves.  Source:  Shadow and Act.

Trailer:

 

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Bad Dad Rehab

Bad Dad RehabRelease Date:  7/3/16; TV One (2015)
Genre:  Drama/Comedy
Rating:  NR
Director:  Carl Seaton
Cast:  Malik Yoba (Mr. Leon), Richard Ri’Chard (Tristan), Wesley Jonathan (Shawn), Pierre (Rick Gonzalez), Rob Riley (Jared).
Story:  Bad Dad Rehab is about four men who are fathers to their children, but not dads. Shawn (Wesley Jonathan) wants to see his kids, but his vengeful ex-wife wants the back child support he owes first. Tristan (Robert R’ichard) would rather pay out of pocket for a pair of designer sneakers than a fraction of that for his child’s winter coat. Jared (Rob Riley) is a single guy who prefers to pay child support instead of pay attention to his teenage daughter. And rounding out the crew is Pierre (Rick Gonzalez) who just doesn’t give a damn about his son – period. After turbulence with their respective baby mamas and ex-wives force them to take definitive action, the guys sign up for Deadbeat Dad Rehab to help them get their act together. Through all the hilarity, hijinks, drama and soul-searching, the guys discover that fatherhood is less about making babies, and more about becoming men. Source: TV One.

Trailer:

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