Release Date: 2/24/17; In Theaters Genre:Action/Thriller Rating: Unknown Running Time:Unknown Director: Baran bo Odar Studio: FilmNation Entertainment, Open Road Films (II), Riverstone Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment.
Cast:Jamie Foxx (Vincent Downs), Gabrielle Union, T.I., Michelle Monaghan, David Harbour, Dermot Mulroney.
Story:In this Sin City thriller, Las Vegas cop Vincent Downs finds himself trapped between corrupt cops and the mob underground. When a heist goes bad, Downs’ son is snatched from his car by a group of armed men who demand the money they would have made from the robbery in exchange for returning Downs’ son alive. Meanwhile, he’s also dealing with an internal affairs investigation while trying to retrieve his son and get even with the kidnappers — all in one long night. Downs’ mission takes him through the city’s maze of parking garages and nightclubs and has him driving sports cars through the city and engaging in hand-to-hand combat in the bowels of a casino. Sleepless is a remake of the 2011 French film Sleepless Night. Source: The Wrap.
Release Date: 2/24/17; In Theaters Genre: Horror Rating: Unknown Running Time:Unknown Director: Jordan Peele Studio: Blumhouse Productions, QC Entertainment. Cast: Daniel Kaluuya (Chris), Allison Williams (Rose), Keith Stanfield, Bradley Whitford (Dean), Caleb Landry Jones, Catherine Keener (Missy), Betty Gabriel (Georgina), Marcus Henderson (Walter).
Story: When a young African American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation. Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford). At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined. Source: Shadow & Act, IMDB.
Release Date: 10/16/16; Tallgrass Film Festival Genre:Drama Rating:NR Running Time: 92 mins. Director(s): Aaron Greer, Seth Panitch. Studio(s): Gettin’ Grown Productions, University of Alabama. Cast: Morgan Auld (Eli), Christopher Livingston (Michael), Lamman Rucker (Dr. Johnson), Keith David (Dean Holmes), Sydney Morton (Melanie), Nathan James
(ER Doctor).
Story:In 1967, both Eli Rosenberg and Michael Dubois have a problem. For Eli, only one medical school in the country will accept him: Meharry Medical College, an all-black medical school in Tennessee, a considerable distance from his life in Brooklyn, New York. For Michael, only one medical school in the country will do for him: Meharry Medical College, his successful father’s alma mater, and therefore his, whether he likes it or not.
Both Eli and Michael are outsiders from radically different backgrounds forced to work together inside the pressure cooker of medical school in the turbulent 1960s. At odds from the very moment they meet, Eli and Michael not only clash with each other, they battle the indecipherable mysteries of medicine, two warring professors, and a student body warily distrustful of both of them. Ultimately, it is upon the anvil of riot and revolution on the day of Dr. King’s assassination, that each must answer the question that has haunted them from the beginning: is a physician, a healer, in service of self, or is their true calling “Service to Man?”
Inspired by a true story.Source(s): servicetoman.com, official site; IMDB.
Release Date: 2/25/17; TV One Genre:Drama Running Time: Unknown Director: Craig Ross, Jr. Studio: TV One
Cast: Penny Johnson Jerald (Jackie Jones), Brian White (Michael Jones), Gary Dourdan (Jabbar Randolph), Stephen Bishop (Will Randolph), Chrystee Pharris (Crystal Jones), Blue Kimble (Anthony Jones), Pooch Hall (Clay), Denise Boutte.
Story: Media is a backdoor pilot to a potential series that will explore the drama and secrets behind a powerful family dynasty. The TV movieis described as a riveting story of a wealthy family battling the competitive challenges of keeping their status and position in the communications industry. Passion, intrigue and murder become a lethal recipe for powerful matriarch Jackie Jones and her children. Jackie is the founder of Jones Universal Media Properties, aka JUMP, the world’s premier urban media conglomerate. A family tragedy forces her son, prominent lead city attorney and prosecutor Michael Jones, to abandon his political aspirations and take over the company just as a ruthless rival challenges JUMP’s longtime domination of a lucrative industry. Michael is confronted by sins of the past, and the dangers of the present when Jabbar Randolph, CEO of JUMP’s biggest competitor, is released from prison. Grabbing back the reigns from his brother, Will, Jabbar embarks on a mission of revenge, betrayal and corporate intrigue. Source: Deadline, Shadow and Act.
Release Date: 2015 Genre:Drama Rating:NR Running Time: 120 mins. Director: Jomae Scott Studio(s): Jomae Productions; Maverick Entertainment
Cast: Vernon Snoop Robinson (Apollo), Andromeda Jones (Bel), Robin L. White (Joi), Emerald Khan (Eve), Sophia Knolton (Gennie), Amy Cannon Bryant (Datra), Jamar Harris (Drake).
Story: Apollo Love and his wife, Joi, don’t know if their marriage can survive his affair with the beautiful seductress, Bel. Although the affair has ended, Bel is in full stalker mode while the Love family tries to deal with Apollo’s unfaithfulness, and the recent death of Joi’s parents. A web of lies and secrets that have been hidden by other members of both of their families are uncovered, and everyone starts to look scandalous. In the end, the biggest Bold Evil Liar wins. Source(s): Maverick Entertainment; IMDB.
Release Date: 12/25/16 (In Theaters) Genre:Drama Rating: Unknown Running Time:139 mins. Director: Denzel Washington Studio: Bron Studios, MACRO, Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions
Cast: Denzel Washington (Troy), Viola Davis (Rose), Mykelti Williamson (Gabriel), Russell Hornsby (Grimm), Stephen Henderson (Bono), Saniyya Sidney (Raynell) Jovan Adepo (Cory).
Story: In Fences, Denzel Washington returns to the director’s chair for the fourth time in his career. It’s based on a play by August Wilson that won a Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tony Awards, revolving around a sanitation worker in Pittsburgh who is haunted by his dream as a young man to become a professional baseball player, at a time before the major leagues were integrated. Washington starred with Viola Davis in a Broadway revival of the play in 2010, which won Tony Awards for both of them. The two are reprising their roles as Troy and Rose in the movie.Joining Washington and Davis in front of the camera are: Mykelti Williamson, Russell Hornsby, Jovan Adepo and Saniyya Sidne.
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Details:Back in 1987, Wilson’s play was set up at Paramount as a potential vehicle for Eddie Murphy, who was looking for a serious role. He had his eye on a part as the older son of Troy Maxson, currently played by Washington in both a stage version of the play and the movie. By December 1988, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, now extinct, had Murphy rewriting his own character, which, according to the paper, he thought “came off too wimpy in the play.” Eventually, he left the writing to Wilson, but the project became tangled in the playwright’s insistence that Fences, which deals with racial barriers and intricate family relations, should have a black director. “Until the industry is ready to hire a black to direct De Niro or Redford, blacks should at least be able to direct their own experience,” he said in January 1990, at a conference sponsored by the California Afro-American Museum. “White directors are not qualified for the job. The job requires someone who shares the specifics of the culture of black Americans,” Wilson added.
Actually, Paramount was trying to accommodate. A black executive worked on the film and by 1992 Paramount was in talks with John Singleton, who was then riding high on his success with Boyz N The Hood. Ultimately, Singleton bowed out, as did Murphy. Produce Scott Rudin appears to have gotten involved in about 1997, when he was still a powerhouse producer at Paramount. Eventually, Rudin sent Wilson’s script to Washington, as a potential director. Washington, according to people who have tracked the project through the years, said yes; but he wanted to revive it first on Broadway, which he did. Wilson died in 2005, but his one-man campaign for a black-directed film became something of a movement.
Fences which opens nationwide on Christmas Day, is beginning to look like a serious rival to Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation along with Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight and perhaps others to carry the torch for black cinema. Sources: Shadow and Act; Movies.com; Deadline.
Black Cinema Connection 