Release Date: 2/5/21; VOD (Original Release – 8/26/20; American Black Film Festival) Genre:Biography/Drama Rating: Pg-13 Director:Barry Alexander Brown Studio(s): Buffalo 8 Productions, El Ride Productions, Lucidity Entertainment, Major Motion Pictures, River Bend Pictures, SSS Film Capital, Clear Horizon. Running Time:105 mins.
Cast:Lucas Till as Bob Zellner, Lucy Hale as Carol Anne, Lex Scott Davis as Joanne, Julia Ormond as Virginia Durr, Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph Abernathy, Sharonne Lainer as Rosa Parks, Brian Dennehy as Grandfather, Chaka Forman as Jim Forman, Mike C. Manning as Townsend Ellis, Shamier Anderson as Reggie, Ludi Lin as Derek Ang, Dexter Darden as John Lewis, Matt William Knowles as Jim Zwerg, Byron Herlong as James Zellner, Onye Eme-Akwari as Charles McDew.
Story: Based on Bob Zellner’s autobiography The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, the film follows the true-life story of Zellner, an Alabama native and grandson of a Birmingham Klansman who is pulled into the center of the civil rights movement. The spring and summer of 1961 challenged the 22-year old to rethink his beliefs as he witnessed the heroism of John Lewis during the Montgomery Freedom Riders riot in May of that year. Spike Lee is the executive producer. Source(s): Black Film; The Wektumpka Herald.
Release Date: 4/2/21; Netflix (Original Release – 9/13/20) Genre: Drama/Based On A True Story Rating: R Director: Ricky Staub Studio(s): Green Door Pictures, Lee Daniels Entertainment, Neighborhood Film Co., Tucker Tooley Entertainment; Netflix Running Time: 111 mins.
Story:In this drama inspired by the real-life Fletcher Street Stables, 15-year-old Cole is taken to live with his estranged father Harp in North Philadelphia. There he discovers the city’s vibrant urban cowboy subculture, which has existed for more than 100 years providing a safe haven for the neighborhood despite the surrounding poverty, violence, and encroachment of gentrification. Source: IMDB; Shadow and Act.
Story:Jackie Justice, a disgraced MMA fighter who has failed at the one thing she’s ever been good at – fighting. When 6-year-old Manny, the son she walked out on years ago, returns on her doorstep, Jackie has to conquer her demons, face one of the fiercest rising stars of the MMA world and ultimately fight to become the mother this kid deserves. Source: Shadow and Act.
Release Date:8/16/20, Series Premiere; HBO Genre: Drama Rating:NR Director:Yann Demange Studio(s):Bad Robot, Monkeypaw Productions, Warner Bros. Television, HBO.
Cast:Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Letitia Dandridge), Michael Kenneth Williams (Montrose Freeman), Aunjanue Ellis (Hippolyta Black), Courtney B. Vance (George Black), Jonathan Majors (Atticus Black), Wunmi Mosaku (Ruby Dandridge), Demetrius Grosse (Marvin Baptiste), Abbey Lee (Christina Braithwhite), Jamie Chung (Ji-Ah), Jordan Patrick Smith (William).
Story: Drama series based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff, follows Atticus Black as he joins his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. What follows is a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from an H.P. Lovecraft paperback.
Atticus (Majors) is a Korean war vet who always has a pulp novel in his back pocket, and wears his heart on his sleeve despite the daily injustice of living in Jim Crow America. His father, Montrose (Williams), however is hard headed and secretive, and always believed you can’t live in a fantasy world — making him less-than-thrilled about his son’s love for pulp novels. It’s Atticus’ uncle (Vance) who’s always been more like a father to him. Warm, funny, and well read, he was the first to introduce Atticus to the wonderful and strange world of pulp novels. As the publisher of the “Safe Negro Travel Guide” he’s been on enough adventures to understand there’s no place like home.
Letitia “Leti” Lewis (Smollett) hustled her way across the country as an artist protesting for civil rights and now finds herself back home to plant some roots. Her half-sister Ruby (Mosaku) is also a hustler, but her hustles haven’t paid off. Her family ties are tested when she’s presented with an offer she can’t refuse. Hippolyta Freeman (Ellis) is a star-gazer who’s been a housewife most of her life, but has dreams of getting into some adventures of her own. Her itch for adventure will eventually, literally and figuratively, take her to the stars and beyond.
Eustice Hunt (Harris), is a sundown county sheriff with a NAACP complaint file a mile long, and a marine tattoo on the back of his neck so the enemy has something to aim at, gets more than he bargained for when he crosses paths with Atticus; Ji-Ah (Chung) is a seemingly naive nursing student who is thrust into active service when war breaks out, and a rash of soldier disappearances suggests she is more than what she seems.
Christina Braithwhite (Lee) is the only daughter of the leader of a secret order calling themselves the “Sons of Adam.” She’s gone to great lengths to earn her father’s respect, but to no avail. She’s going to pave her own path to power, and use Atticus and his family to do it. William (Smith) is Christina’s henchman, lover, bodyguard, spy, or whatever else she may need him to be. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, he’s the “perfect specimen” for the Aryan race.
Produced by Misha Green, J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele, Bill Carraro, Yann Demange, Daniel Sackheim and David Knoller. Source: HBO.
Release Date: 8/4/2020; DVD (Original Release – 2018) Genre:Thriller Rating: NR Directors:Sheena Herod, Wardell Richardson Studio(s):Tapoo Productions Running Time:65 mins. Cast: Blue Kimble, Stephanie Stevens, Denise Monet Bingley
Story: Daniel and his wife Brenda appeared to have it all together, but smiles can be deceiving and kisses can be poison. A healthy marriage is difficult to attain and destroy, but not when secrets are intertwined in the vows, especially one that can kill. Source: Maverick Entertainment.
Release Date:8/18/2020; DVD (Original Release – 2018) Genre: Comedy/Drama Rating:NR Director:Laron M. Chapman Studio(s):WeerNProduction, You People, Maverick Entertainment. Running Time:94 Minutes Cast: Joseph Lee Anderson, Gabrielle Reyes, James Austin Kerr.
Story: You People is a satirical comedy about modern stereotypes, chronicling the life of an intelligent, white-washed, African-American college student, adopted by a liberal Caucasian family, who has a crisis of identity while growing up in the Bible belt, white suburbia with his urban hip-hop culture obsessed, white best friend. When an attractive girl on campus approaches the black protagonist based on his “presumed” stereotypical traits, he has to undergo a “cultural transformation” with the help of his white companion to tap into his inner “blackness.” Source: Maverick Entertainment.
Release Date: 2/5/21; VOD (Original Release – 8/26/20; American Black Film Festival)
Black Cinema Connection 