Tag: Drama

Crown Heights

a/k/a Darker Than Blue

Release Date:  (2017)
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  94 mins.
Director:  Matt Ruskin
Studio(s):   Iam21 Entertainment, Washington Square Films, Black Maple Films.

Cast:  Keith Stanfield (Colin Warner), Nnamdi Asomugha (Carl King), Natalie Paul (Antoinette), Bill Camp (William Robedee), Nestor Carbonell (Bruce Regenstreich).

Story:  On April 10, 1980, a shot rang out on the streets of Crown Heights, igniting a decades-long quest for justice in this harrowing true story. Colin Warner is arrested and tried for a crime he did not commit, a victim of a deeply broken system that refuses to listen. Quick to throw him away, the court wrongfully convicts him. But as Colin loses hope to reclaim an innocence that has been cast aside, his best friend, Carl King, devotes his life to restoring Colin’s freedom, doggedly pursuing every lead for years.  Source:  Sundance.org.

Trailer:

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Dayveon

dayveon-stillRelease Date:   1/19/17; Sundance Film Festival
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  75 mins.
Director:  Amman Abbasi
Studio:   Mama Bear Studios, Muskat Filmed Properties, Rough House Pictures, Salem Street Entertainment, Symbolic Exchange.

Cast:  Devin Blackmon (Dayveon), Dontrell Bright (Brian), Lachion Buckingham (Mook), Kordell Johnson (Brayden), Chasity Moore (Kim), Marquell Manning (Country).

Story:  In the wake of his big brother’s violent death, 13-year-old Dayveon (Devin Blackmon) struggles to find his way in an economically depressed Arkansas town. With no parents and few role models around, Dayveon is soon torn between the lure of a local gang and the friendship of his sister’s boyfriend, who reluctantly acts as a father figure.  Source:  Sundance.org.

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Roxanne Roxanne

Release Date:  3/23/18; Netflix
(2017 – original release date)
Genre:  Drama/Biography
Rating:  NR
Running Time:  100 mins.
Director:  Michael Larnell
Studio(s):   Forest Whitaker’s Significant Productions, IamOTHER Entertainment, Neon.
Cast:  Chanté Adams (Roxanne Shanté), Mahershala Ali (Cross), Nia Long (Ms. Peggy Gooden), Elvis Nolasco (Ray), Jermel Howard (Roland), Eden Duncan-Smith (Latifa), Tonye Patano (Ms. Denise), Sean Ringgold (Keith), Taliyah Whitaker (Young Roxanne Shanté).

Story:   The film, set in the 1980s, tells the story of a 14-year-old rap prodigy from New York City’s Queensbridge Projects named Lolita Shante Gooden, who would go on to become the famed rapper hip hop fans know her as: Roxanne Shanté.

Shanté’s career kicked off after meeting fellow rapper Tyrone Williams, D.J. Mr. Magic and record producer Marley Marl outside the Queensbridge housing project, the same complex that produced rap legends like Nas and Mobb Deep.  She gained commercial success after teaming up with Marl to produce a response track to U.T.F.O.’s popular song “Roxanne, Roxanne.” Her version, which legend has it was free-styled in Marl’s apartment in between laundry loads, was titled “Roxanne’s Revenge” and became an instant hit.  Sources:  Black Film; Essence.  Photo Source:  Sundance.org.

Trailer:

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Mudbound

Release Date:   2017
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  R
Running Time:  134 mins.
Director:   Dee Rees
Studio(s):   Armory Films, Black Bear Pictures, Elevated Films (II), MACRO, MMC Joule Films. Zeal Media.
Cast:  Jason Mitchell (Ronsel Jackson), Rob Morgan (Hap Jackson), Mary J. Blige (Florence Jackson), Carey Mulligan (Laura McAllan), Jason Clarke (Henry McAllan), Garrett Hedlund (Jamie McAllan), Jonathan Banks (Pappy McAllan).

Story:  A big-screen adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s 2009 novel of the same name, which is set in 1946 in the wake of World War II, the story follows the fates of two very different families that collide while struggling to make their dreams come true in the Mississippi Delta.  When two celebrated soldiers return home, their unlikely friendship complicates the already fraught relationship between the families.  The official Sundance synopsis reads:  set in the post–World War II South, the story follows two families who are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.  Source:  Shadow and Act.

Trailer:

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Believe

believeRelease Date:  12/2/16; Limited
Genre:  Drama/Inspirational
Rating:  PG
Director:  Billy Dickson
Studio(s):  Power of 3; Sony Pictures
Cast:  Ryan O’Quinn (Matthew Peyton), Danielle Nicolet (Sharon Joseph), Issac Ryan Brown (Clarence Joseph), Shawnee Smith (Dr. Nancy Wells), Kevin Sizemore (Albert Bagley), David DeLuise (Tom Blackhorn).

Story:   Believe centers on the annual Christmas pageant in the small town of Grundy, VA, where the automotive business backing the pageant has been hit by financial hardships.  When Matthew Peyton inherits the family business, he finds himself overwhelmed, as his business profits plummet and his workers begin to strike.  Matthew is forced to make a decision between selling the family business and cancelling the beloved pageant or sticking out hardships despite his rapidly declining popularity in the community.  Through chance events, Matthew meets Clarence, a boy who believes in miracles, and his mother Sharon.  His newfound friends impact Matthew’s life in a way he never thought possible and teach him to believe and give faith a chance.  Source(s):  Variety; Blackfilm.

Trailer:

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Service To Man

service-to-manRelease 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.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiD12j1dbCg&rel=0

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