Black Cinema Connection

a/k/a Don’t Fear

Release Date:  1/27/23; In Theaters (Limited)

Genre:  Horror

Rating:  R

Running Time:  100 mins.

Director:  Deon Taylor

Studio(s):  Hidden Empire Film Group (HEFG); Hidden Empire Releasing.

Cast:  Annie Ilonzeh (Bianca), Joseph Sikora (Rom), Andrew Bachelor (Benny), Terrence Jenkins (Russ), Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris (Lou), Iddo Goldberg (Michael), Ruby Modine (Serena), Jessica Allain (Meg), Tyler Abron (Kim).

Story:  A year into living through a worldwide pandemic, a group of friends gather in the remote Tahoe Mountains to stay at the “Historic Strawberry Lodge”. But celebration turns to terror as one by one each guest faces their own worst fear.  Sources:  Firstshowing.net.

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Release Date:  1/22/23; Sundance Film Festival

Genre:  Drama

Rating:  NR

Director:  Raven Jackson

Studio(s):  A24, PASTEL

Cast:  Charleen McClure, Moses Ingram, Sheila Atim, Kaylee Nicole Johnson, Reginald Helms, Jr., Chris Chalk, Jayah Henry, Zainab Jah.

Story:  Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place.  Source/Photo Source:  festival.sundance.org.

Release Date:  1/20/23; In Theaters

Genre:  Thriller

Rating:  PG-13

Directors:  Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick

Studio(s):  Sony Pictures Releasing, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA), Stage 6 Films.

Cast:  Storm Reid (June Allen), Nia Long (Grace Allen), Ken Leung (Kevin Lin), Joaquim de Almeida (Javier Ramos), Daniel Henney (Elijah Park).

Story:  When her mother disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late. But as she digs deeper, her digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers and when June unravels secrets about her mom, she discovers that she never really knew her at all.  Standalone sequel to the 2018 film Searching, which was set entirely on computer screens and smartphones and followed a father trying to find his missing 16-year-old daughter  Source:  Wikipedia. Photo Source:  Jakalefilm.com.

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Release Date:  2023 (TBA); Netflix

Genre:  Sci-Fi/Mystery/Comedy

Rating:  R

Director:  Juel Taylor

Studio(s):  Federal Films, MACRO, Made With Love Media, Netflix.

Cast:  John Boyega (Fontaine), Teyonah Parris (Yo-Yo), Jamie Foxx (Slick Charles), J. Alphonse Nicholson (Isaac), David Alan Grier, Kiefer Sutherland.

Story:  They Cloned Tyrone tells the story of Yo-Yo, Slick, and Fontaine, three unlikely friends who are brought together by their shared discovery of a massive, secret governmental surveillance plan to monitor the lives of Black people before disappearing them and replacing them with clones.  Source:  theverge.com.  Photos Sources:  IMDB, thetealmango.com.

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Release Date:  12/9/22; Apple TV+
Genre:  Drama/Historical
Rating:  R
Director:  Antoine Fuqua
Studio(s):  Apple TV+, CAA Media Finance, Escape Artists, McFarland Entertainment

Cast:  Will Smith (Peter), Ben Foster (Fassel), Steven Ogg (Sergeant Howard), Charmaine Bingwa (Dodienne), Gilbert Owuor (Gordon), Mustafa Shakir (Andre Cailloux), Grant Harvey (Leeds), Ronnie Gene Blevins (Harrington), Timothy Hutton (Senator John Lyons).

Story:  After being whipped nearly to death, an enslaved man named Peter escapes from a Louisiana plantation, outwitting cold-blooded hunters, as he makes his way North, where he joins the Union Army. The film is based on the true story of Gordon or “Whipped Peter” an escaped American slave who was the subject of photographs documenting extensive keloid scarring on his back as a result of whippings he received while he was a slave. The “scourged back” photo became one of the most widely circulated photos of the abolitionist movement during the American Civil War.  Source:  Wikipedia.

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