Elvire Emanuelle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo And Director Olivia Newman Discuss 'First Match' (SXSW Interview)

The relationships that Black girls have with their fathers isn’t examined nearly enough. There are stories that center around absentee fathers, and the damage they do to their offspring. However, there are very few films about the heroic roles that Black fathers play in their daughters' lives from adolescence through womanhood. Set in Brooklyn’s notorious Brownsville neighborhood, writer/director Olivia Newman's First Match shines a spotlight on one young girl, Monique (portrayed by Elvire Emanuelle) who joins her high school wrestling team in a desperate attempt to win back the affection of her estranged father Darrel (portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Under the direction of her thoughtful coach (portrayed by Colman Domingo) Mo finds a different type of family. During the film's premiere at SXSW, I chatted with Newman and the cast aboutFirst Match and what the film means to them. Newman’s arresting tale was born out of her the short film she made for her MFA thesis. At the time, she was examining the growing number of girls who were joining all-boys wrestling teams in high school. Her research led her from the picturesque buildings of Columbia University to the gritty streets of Brownsville.

“When I made the short film, I was really focused on just the experience of being a girl participating in a full-contact sport in a coed context," Newman recalled. “I was just looking for the best wrestler to be in the short, and this wrestler Nyasa, that I cast, happened to be from Brownsville. We formed a friendship in making the film, and we stayed in touch over the years. The story for the feature really just evolved out of our friendship and getting to know her and her friends and hearing their stories.”

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Keiynan Lonsdale Talks 'Love, Simon,' Embracing Yourself And Why Young People Will Change The World

A warm and beautiful story of friendship, loss, and the innate desire to love and be loved, Greg Berlanti’s groundbreaking Love, Simon is not just a love story for the LGBTQ community -- but one for humanity in a time when we seem to be losing touch with one another. The film follows seventeen-year-old Simon Spier (portrayed by Nick Robinson), a typical teenager just trying to get through his last year in high school. However, since he as yet to tell his friends and family that he’s gay, managing his friendships, familial relationships, and a new love becomes stifling. The Flash star Keiynan Lonsdale stars in the film, as Bram, a classmate of Simon’s who seems to move through high school effortlessly, not held down by the all-consuming confusion Simon is battling. Ahead of the Love, Simon premiere, I sat down to talk with Lonsdale about his role, why young people are going to change the world, and why this film spoke to his spirit.

Though the film is based on Becky Albertalli’s 2015 award-winning YA novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Lonsdale picked up the script without knowing anything about the story. “I hadn't read about the book prior to hearing about the film project, so it was all sort of a surprise,” he revealed. “It was a whole new look into an awesome story — one that is very much needed. So it was really exciting. Once I read the script I just kept thinking, 'I can't believe this movie hasn't been made already.' I think that was a good sign to say that it's really time.”

With a plethora of YA films dominating the box office in recent years from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games and more recently, The Fault in Our Stars and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it seems astounding that Love, Simon is the first teen LGBTQ romance from a major studio. “I think perhaps everything has changed in the past 12 months,” Lonsdale reflected. “A year ago I would have been surprised by a lot of these things -- surprised by all these firsts, but now the way that I look at things is I should have realized how young we are as a society. As much as progress seems really slow, there are also changes that happen really really quickly. Five years ago honestly, I don't know if people would have been warm and openly as accepting of this kind of project —Hollywood especially. Social media has really helped because now people can see that they're not alone, and more people have started to speak up. I think it's a combination of things, but I do think that we're shifting a lot, so that's why these firsts are coming out.”

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Identity And The Glory of Girlhood Stand At The Center Of Nijla Mu'min's 'Jinn' (SXSW Review)

Freedom. It’s a word that epitomizes our teenage years – a time that seems endless and glorious. However, it’s also a period where we often feel confined — boxed in as we rebel against our parents’ rules and traditions while trying to step into our own identities. Writer-director (and Shadow and Act contributor) Nijla Mu'min’s debut feature Jinn paints a picture of a teen we don’t often see in film. Jinn tells the story of a Black girl who wears her freedom and individuality like a coat of armor, while those around her — including her mother, are still trying to grapple with who they are. Summer (portrayed by The Quad’s Zoe Renee) is a carefree high school senior who embraces girlhood full throttle. A dancer with her sights set on securing admission to California Institute of the Arts, Summer spends her days hanging with her homegirls, flirting with anyone who catches her eye, dyeing her lush fro a variety of colors, and chomping down on pepperoni pizza and churros. Her relatively stress-free life is upended when her mother Jade (portrayed by Luke Cage's Simone Missick) decides to convert to Islam.

Though this is mostly Summer’s story, Mu'min also turns her lens on Jade. A prominent meteorologist on a network channel, Jade's life seems to be in order professionally, but her desire for something more profound leads her to Islam. While Summer is fearless — diving headfirst into exploring her sexuality, identity, friendships, and even Islam, Jade is wary and fearful. Missick brings a warmth, cautiousness, and strength to the role, even when Jade berates her daughter for not being who she wants her to be. It was intriguing to watch the relationship between Jade and Summer crackle and fade between friendship and guardianship. The mother-daughter relationship is central here, as we watch two very different women come to terms with who they are and who they are desperate to become. This juxtaposition was one of the most profound aspects Jinn. After all, our relationships with our mothers, though imperfect are often deeply embedded in who we are as Black women.

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'A Wrinkle in Time' isn't a film for critics. It's Ava DuVernay's love letter to black girls

t was never going to be an easy task for acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay to bring “A Wrinkle in Time” to the big screen; with 26 rejections, author Madeleine L’Engle had a tumultuous journey to get her story published at all. The acclaimed children’s book tells the story of teenager Meg Murry (portrayed now by Storm Reid) as she grapples with the pitfalls of adolescence while coming to terms with the disappearance of her physicist father, Dr. Alex Murry (portrayed by Chris Pine). Though L’Engle‘s story seems straightforward on the surface, Meg’s journey to find her father is full of intrigue, theoretical physics, science fiction and an earnest nod toward love and light. All of these components made it difficult for publishers in the late 1950s and early 1960s to take a chance on “A Wrinkle in Time,” and extremely complicated for anyone to adapt the story to the screen. The first film adaptation hit the small screen in 2003, and L’Engle reportedly hated it.

According to The New York Post, bewildered editors often asked L’Engle if her book was intended for adults or for children to which she would reply, “It’s for people, don’t people read books?” Considering some of the reviews of DuVerney's film, it looks like the motion picture has run into the same critiques as the novel. An uneven tone and choppy script has muddled down the magic of the film for many critics; Forbes, for example, has called it, “a well-intentioned disappointment.”

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South African Filmmaker Nosipho Dumisa On Her Crime Thriller 'Number 37' (SXSW Interview)

We all have a story to tell; the truth is defined merely by our perspective. Paying homage to the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, South African filmmaker Nosipho Dumisa dives headfirst into the crime thriller genre with her arresting debut feature, Number 37. A tale of desperation, love, and greed, Number 37 follows Randal (Irshaad Ally) a criminal confined to his apartment after a drug deal leaves him crippled. Terrified and unable to pay back a vicious loan shark named Emmie (Danny Ross), Randal’s sole salvation is his girlfriend Pam (Monique Rockman) and the pair of binoculars she gifts him. Desperate to come up with the money to pay back Emmie, Randal hatches a deadly plan that puts himself, Pam, and everyone else in his Cape Town housing project at risk. Ahead of the film's premiere at SXSW, I chatted with Dumisa about bringing her magnificent story to the big screen.

For Dumisa, Hitchcock's 1954 classic Rear Window and the government housing projects sprinkled across Cape Town sparked the idea of Number 37. "I just knew that this was the perfect area to reimagine one of my favorite films," she explained. “ Randal is not an innocent photographer. Randal is the architect of his own problems, and he’s stuck in a world that has sought to define him by his background. Therefore, he feels locked in and without options, but we always have options."

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Ava DuVernay's 'A Wrinkle In Time' Is A Whimsical Ride, Made For A Special Audience (Review)

Adolescence can be a troubling and challenging time and Ava DuVernay’s film adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle’s novel A Wrinkle In Time was made not just with kids in mind, but with 8-12-year-olds as the film’s intended audience. It is DuVernay’s love letter to children and the wonder and magic of childhood. The film follows Storm Reid’s Meg Murry; a troubled young lady reeling from her father’s four-year-long disappearance. Angry and bullied, Meg only finds solace in her younger brother, the hilarious and precocious Charles Wallace – portrayed wonderfully by newcomer Deric McCabe. On the verge of retreating into herself entirely, Charles Wallace introduces Meg to Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey). These three warriors of light help guide Meg on her journey to the center of the universe not only to find her father but to discover just what she's capable of.

Gorgeously shot, A Wrinkle In Time places a young black girl at the center, something rarely seen in mainstream films, highlighting why this type of representation continues to be so necessary. Reid is phenomenal as Meg, holding her own in a cast full of acclaimed veteran actors. Through Meg, DuVernay perfectly captures the various nuances of adolescence and all of the emotions that are wrapped within it.  Though the film is a feast for the eyes, except for the odd choice of sometimes displaying Winfrey’s Ms. Which as a mega-sized monstrosity, A Wrinkle In Time, in certain parts, seems at war with itself. A jarring script and an uneven tone muddle down Wrinkle's message at certain points. DuVernay is careful to pay homage to the uncertainty of our teens years, with all of the self-depreciation and uncertainties that come with it. However, A Wrinkle In Time’s Disneyfied stamp, which includes a burgeoning adolescent romance between our protagonist and her classmate Calvin (Levi Miller), felt forced and out of place. In fact, when comparing the first and second act, Wrinkle felt like two entirely different films mashed into one.

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For Jordan Peele, This Is Bigger Than An Oscar: ‘This Award Is Bigger Than Me’

Jordan Peele made Get Out in 23 days for $4.5 million dollars. It was a script that he kept seeing in his head but was uncertain about putting on screen. In fact, Peele was nervous about directing the film because he wasn't sure that his vision would translate onscreen. When it finally came to fruition, his debut film Get Out; a stunning look at race in present-day America told through the horror genre shattered everyone's expectations. Last night, Peele took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards. Standing backstage after the show, he was euphoric. Clothing his brassy gold statue, the writer/director seemed almost in disbelief.

"I didn't know how important this was," he marveled. "I always wanted this, but the campaign is grueling and there are times when I questioned what it was all about. You're watching your last jump shot for a year, and as an artist that doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel right to be complacent. When the nominations came together for (Get Out), I had this amazing feeling of looking at a twelve-year-old that had this burning in my guts for this type of validation, and I instantly realized that an award like this is much bigger than me. This is about paying it forward to other people who might not believe they could achieve the highest honor in whatever craft they are trying to push for. You're not a failure if you don't get (an Oscar), but I almost didn't do it because I didn't believe that there was a place for me."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV9a98Bl9eI

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Kylie Bunbury And Lamorne Morris Talk Rolling The Dice In New Film, 'Game Night'

Comedy is changing—it’s getting sharper and wittier, demanding more from actors and from the audience. Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein's slick and smart Game Night is a reflection on the evolution of the genre and where it is headed. Married couple and game night enthusiasts Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams) are right in their element when Max’s big brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) invites them and a group of their friends to a murder mystery party. However, the fun and games get a bit more extreme than anyone bargain for.

Married couple Michelle and Kevin, played by Kylie Bunbury and Lamorne Morris respectively, are one of the couples who find themselves swept up in Brooks’ high-stakes game. Trying to get the upper hand in the competition unveils some hilarious truths about their marriage. Ahead of Game Night’s premiere, I sat down to chat with Bunbury and Morris in Los Angeles about bringing screenwriter Mark Perez’s magical script to life and why this particular kind of comedy is an actor's dream.

For Morris who just wrapped the final season of New Girl, comedy swirls in his blood. Bunbury, on the other hand, has mostly taken on dramatic roles, so Game Night was an entirely new adventure for her. “I loved the fact that it was really funny, but it had this thriller aspect to it," the Pitch actress recalled. “I also love to play games, so I thought that was really interesting, and I just love the ensemble aspect of it.”

“I felt the same way," Morris explained. “When you read comedy it's rare that you will laugh at the whole thing. A lot of times you'll find these moments, and , 'I can probably punch this up if I decide to do this.' When I read the script the first time, I was like, 'Oh my God, I want to be in this.' Funny enough, the first time I read the script, I was helping a friend audition for one of the roles. Long story short, I ended up getting a call for it too. I was like, 'Oh, I gotta take this role brother I apologize.'”

Mark Perez was clear about his desire to combine his skills as a comedy writer with elements of horror and action. For the Accepted writer, the tonal beats of Jordan Peele’s Get Out were a significant inspiration for Game Night. Because the script already packed a punch, Morris wasn’t afraid to throw his whole arsenal of impersonations in the mix. “You're testing the movie to see which ones play better with different audiences," he reflected on one particular joke that runs throughout the film. “I was doing impressions from the beginning, and I guess they found mileage in that. So they said ‘Let's run with that’ and they did a rewrite. We had to reshoot and the rest is history. I don't want to spoil anything.”

Playing a married couple was a piece of cake for the actors, especially since their chemistry and playfulness seemed to ping off of one another. “I think everyone has been commenting on our chemistry in the film, and I think we do balance each other out," Bunbury explained. “I think its brilliant casting on their part. We also did a chemistry read before we were cast in this, so they could see our dynamic. We play well, we balance each other out, and we help elevate each other in certain areas.”

“It’s a give and take," Morris added. “Especially in comedy, you have to have someone on the level, and then someone that's out of their minds a little bit. In order for that person who's out of their mind to get a laugh, you need to want to be the voice of the audience that goes, ‘What are you doing? Why are you climbing this thing, why are you trying to do this?' It's great. I think most of the couples in the movie have that dynamic."

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Clare-Hope Ashitey Talks Netflix's 'Seven Seconds,' Imperfect Characters And Authentic Stories

The truth doesn't stay buried. Reality always seeks to reveal itself. Netflix’s new anthology series, Seven Seconds is an intricate work on police/minority relations and the culpability of our criminal justice system. Set in Newark, New Jersey, the series is told from the perspective of a heartbroken couple, Emmy-winner Regina King and Russell Hornsby, a corrupt cop (Beau Knapp) and a troubled assistant district attorney, Clare-Hope Ashitey. The series opens in the wake of a Black teen's gruesome accidental death at the hands of a cop and the stunning coverup that ensues as a result.

Exploring issues that are as glaring in our country as a pool of blood in the freshly fallen snow, Seven Seconds is visceral, painful, and raw. Ashitey received creator Veena Sud’s script a little over a year ago and was immediately intrigued. Ahead of the series debut, we sat down to chat about Seven Seconds and why she was compelled to step into ADA K.J. Harper’s shoes. “I read a lot of scripts, and they range from terrible, to mediocre, to fantastic, and this is a really good one,” the London native explained. “It was well put together, and the characters were really interesting. They were complicated, which is very attractive to me because when characters are archetypes of the hero or the villain, it doesn't feel like it's true, especially in a series. They're asking you to believe this is the real world and no one is straightforward and uncomplicated. The characters in this certainly weren't."

Though she was born and raised in London, England—the daughter of Ghanese immigrants, Ashitey has been well-aware of the continuous incidents of police brutality against Black and brown citizens in the States, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement which has been making strides to combat those types of injustices. “We get a lot of that news in the U.K., and actually quite a lot of coverage of it," she explained. “So it's something that most people at home are aware of, and there are lots of names that most people at home are familiar with, so it wasn't something that was new to me. It's in the news now, but it's been going on for a long, long time. I think the concept of tension, racial tension, in the American society, and also tension between the police force and the African American community, whether it's in the news or not, is never something that's a surprise to anyone.”

Though fictional, Seven Seconds could have certainly been ripped from the headlines. It’s Ashitey’s character K.J. Harper who stands at the center as the tormented, alcoholic ADA who is desperate to piece the case together. “I liked, that she was troubled and that she was struggling,” Ashitey said. “Watching people try to overcome adversity is quite an interesting thing to watch, and it's an interesting thing to play, as well — it's interesting to play with. I'm always more attracted to accurate depictions of people because I don't think it's helpful to have archetypes or stereotypes. I've been asked before about whether I thought it was difficult to portray K.J. as a Black woman, and if I was worried about issues of representation. I'm really not because I think portraying people as they are and not being one thing or another, and not trying to pretend that anyone is perfect is actually much more helpful to the conversation than trying to just put forward a perfect face or a perfect façade.”

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Executive Producer Tressa Azarel Smallwood On Her Unconventional Journey Into The Film Industry

Black women are done waiting for opportunites—we’ve learned to create lanes for ourselves. Fifteen years ago, Executive Producer Tressa Azarel Smallwood pulled the shade on her career as an educator and decided to take a massive leap of faith. Her tenacity and entrepreneurial skills led her to the book publishing industry with Life Changing Books and eventually to film and television as the co-founder of MegaMind Media. A few weeks after presenting her latest film Sinners Wanted at the Sundance Film Festival, Smallwood sat down to chat with me about her unconventional journey and trailblazing career. “The doctor told me that I had to stay on bedrest for six months and I was like, ‘Now wait a minute now, that's like a death sentence!’, she recalled. “During that time I had a family member who said, 'Maybe you should write a book while you're on bedrest, you're really good with creative writing .’ I used to teach English Language Arts. I said, ‘Okay, you know what I'll give that a shot. It's better than flipping the remote all day.' I started working on this book project, and back then, self-publishing was not very popular, so there were a lot of challenges and setbacks with distribution. However, I was really good at business. I put all of my efforts into not only the writing of the book but the distribution and the marketing. When I got off bedrest, I published that book, and I made $40K within my first two months.”

Realizing what she was able to accomplish in a relatively short period of time was eye-opening for the North Carolina native. “I talked to my husband, and he was like, ‘Okay if you don't want to go back to work if this is what you're going to do—you've gotta really do it.’ I never went back to work," Smallwood explained. “I started publishing other authors, writing more books, and that just became an open mecca for me. It’s what led me to eventually create MegaMind Media. I said if I'm going to have a film company the main issue is having the content. What better way to start a movie company when you have 162 book projects to choose from?”

Smallwood was adamant that she didn’t want to just throw a movie together. A novice in the film world, it was vital for her to surround herself with people who knew the ins and outs of the business. “My first project, it was a little bit unorthodox,” she laughed. “In 2015 I was ready to start making my mark in film. I had researched like crazy, and I kept saying I don't want to step out and do this unless I do it the right way. I didn’t want my movie to look dark and fuzzy. I haven't been to film school; I didn't have that level of expertise, so I knew I had to hire the people who could do it the right way. For the first project, I went to filmmaker Jamal Hill. He had already worked with Queen Latifah on Brotherly Love, and he was in pre-production on Deuces. He said, ‘Give me the top five books that you want to work on, and let me tell you which one would work for me.’ So I let him read five of the books. He came back to me and said, ‘Secrets of a Housewife is it. It will speak to the masses. Everybody has been cheated on, or has been the cheater, or knows somebody who's been cheated on.’ I just wanted to make sure at the end of the day we're sending positive messages about Black people. He wrote the first draft of the script, and I loved it. We shot that film in November of 2015. Jamal moved to Washington, D.C. with me for six weeks; he brought in all of the people that he knew and had relationships with from the Director of Photography to producers. My first time out was a success because I chose the right people.”

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Tiffany Boone Talks 'The Chi,' Black Women And Telling Complex Stories

Chicago is being used as a political pawn. Murder rates and gang violence are splashed across our newspapers and television screens with no consideration for facts, figures, and the people who live and thrive in the city. Lena Waithe’s critically acclaimed Showtime series The Chi, gives the city and the South Side, in particular, a chance to speak for itself. The Chicago native’s engrossing characters and words are what drew actress Tiffany Boone out of her acting hiatus and back to television. A few days after The Chi was granted an early season two renewal, Boone and I chatted over the phone. The Baltimore native explained why the role of Jerrika Little shook her awake and reinvigorated her desire to tell stories. “I read it, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I have to be in this. How do we get me in this? Do it now,’ she recalled. “I auditioned, and I didn't get it, and then they cast it, shot it, and then completely recast it. Here we are three years later.”

It wasn’t simply Waithe’s love letter to her hometown that drew Boone to the story, The Following alum connected with Jerrika because she found a kinship with the young woman. “She felt familiar to me," Boone remembered. “I normally play characters that are very different from me. I've played quite a few murderers and a lot of crazy people. It was the first time I had read something that felt, really super close to me. (Jerrika) is a young Black woman trying to get her career together and trying to build this strong relationship with this man she's in love with. She’s strong, funny, independent and complicated —it felt like me, it felt like my friends, it felt like my family, it felt like I knew her. That's what made me want to play her. Then with Jason (Mitchell), we just understood each other from the beginning. It's just a second hand with Jason and I. I think Jason is also in a situation where Brandon is the closest to him that he's ever played as well. We brought a lot of ourselves.”

Thus far, The Chi focuses on four men, Emmett (Jacob Lattimore), Brandon (Mitchell), Ronnie (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) and Kevin (Alex R. Hibbert) whose lives intersect after the murders of two young men from their neighborhood. However, women are very much a part of this tapestry. “The women, at least in the first season, are orbiting them -- we are the planets orbiting their sun," Boone explained. “So, you don't get to see a lot of our lives, outside of our interaction with them. I thought (the scene with Jerrika’s girlfriends) was great and I would love to do more of that. For Black women, our relationships with our girlfriends are so important and so vital to who we are. Your girlfriends are your refuge. What surprised me the most is when (the ladies) showed up to set -- the friends. They were all natural too, and all of us were different sizes and shapes and colors. It was amazing to see the way they cast that and immediately we had a camaraderie.”

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'Hale County This Morning, This Evening' Is Quiet, But Moving (Sundance Review)

Documentary filmmaking is an intimate act. The subject must trust the director enough to allow the camera to capture their most intimate moments and secrets, laying them bare before a prying and curious audience. It’s not something that should be done casually -- especially when it puts Black, brown, and impoverished people on display, many of whom don’t have any real control over how they are presented to the world. In his debut feature documentary, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, director RaMell Ross immerses himself deep into the Alabama Black Belt, following two young men, Daniel Collins and Quincy Bryant over the course of five years. Throwing away the traditional tropes often seen in documentary film, Ross is most concerned with capturing the purity of Black life, with all of its beauty, joy, and frustrations. A photographer and basketball coach, Ross moved to Alabama in 2009 and decided to shift how rural poor Black people are seen in the media. In doing so, he unravels Walker Evans and James Agee’s 1941 Depression-era study of sharecroppers in Hale County, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. In the text, there was not a single close-up of a Black face.

Told non-linearly, Hale County This Morning, This Evening is made up of incredible moments and moving scenes. It’s up to the audience to try and ground themselves in the film, with Ross acting like a guide, providing statements but mostly asking questions about Black life, what the source of our dreams are, and if we can even be contained within the frame of a film.

As we come to know Daniel, who plays basketball at the HBCU Selma University with hopes of making it to the major leagues, we also meet his mother, Mary, whom he is somewhat estranged from because he was raised by his grandmother. We watch scenes from the locker room, Daniel and his teammates roughhousing and preparing for a game, as well as the young man's quiet commentary on his height – he’s not even six feet tall.

Remembering An Icon: 'King: A Film Record … Montgomery to Memphis'

Fifty-years after his assassination and on what would have been his 89th birthday, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (MPAA) honored the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The NMAAHC and The Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts (CAAMA) held a screening of the Academy Award-nominated film King: A Film Record … Montgomery to Memphis in 35mm archival print. The four-hour long documentary had only been screened once previously on March 20, 1970, just two years after the icon was stolen from the world. Throughout his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strength, perseverance, and wisdom made him a giant. In the decades after his death, he’s become an idol – in many ways Dr. King has become almost mythical. King: A Film Record is the closest most of us will ever get to the man himself. Directed by Sidney Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the film is made up solely of archival footage and short vignettes spoken by some of his closest friends and allies including Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte, and James Earl Jones. Through footage of the period, King’s speeches, marches, and sermons, the audience is drawn into and mesmerized by a man who so steadfastly believed in non-violence and in reshaping a very broken America.

The film's lead-in was an introduction from the iconic and regal Harry Belafonte in partnership with the MPAA. The 90-year-old activist spoke all these years later of his first time meeting the young Reverend. The King of Calypso recalled the uncertainty that he heard and saw from the man who seemed surer than anyone that Black people could and would overcome Jim Crow and stifling segregation. Though Dr. King seemed determined to the public, at 26-year-old, he felt unprepared to take on the role as the moral compass of an entire people.

Propelled by Rosa Parks' arrest to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott which took place from late 1955 to 1956, Dr. King and his comrades were determined to strike down Jim Crow and segregationist laws. However, what he nor Belafonte would anticipate was King’s towering legacy that would not only shift opportunities for Black Americans in a way that hadn’t been done since the Reconstruction era but also how he would inspire generations across the globe including our current Black Lives Matter movement. Though he may have felt unsure, Dr. King also predicted our current predicament.

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Renée Elise Goldsberry On Slaying In Netflix's Dystopian Series 'Altered Carbon'

In case you forgot that Renée Elise Goldsberry is a multitalented thespian who can literally do it all, you're about to get a reminder. It's a frigid morning in New York City, and Goldsberry has flown in from Paris for a few days to discuss her new Netflix project. An astounding series based on the 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon is a massive tale set in a future dystopian world where humans transfer their consciousnesses or souls between sleeves (bodies), but only the rich and powerful can truly live forever. A tale of betrayal, love, sex, and fear, Goldsberry stands at the center as warrior Quellcrist Falcone an Envoy or member of the military who was killed in the series prologue. (Once your consciousness is destroyed you cannot transfer sleeves.) And yet, Quellcrist remains a guiding light and a safe memory for Altered Carbon’s protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs (played by Joel Kinnaman) a former Envoy, and the last of his kind. Kovacs is awakened and resleeved after 250 years by billionaire Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy) to solve Bancroft's murder. If the series sounds rich and complicated to you, that’s because it is, and even Goldsberry wasn’t sure what to make of it when she first received the script. “I did not know (the book) when this came across my desk," she remembered. “I was put on a phone call with Laeta Kalogridis, who is the showrunner, and I wasn't even looking for another job. I was kind of neck deep in Broadway doing Hamilton. I think, within three sentences she had me because she said, ‘My mission in life is to create worlds where the hero is a woman of color.’ I was like, ‘Where are we doing this?’"

Quellcrist is more than just a hero; she’s a warrior. Watching Goldsberry shed her Hamilton petticoats and vintage ’40 fashions from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for combat boots and guns was thrilling. “When you ask me about it, I start smiling because on paper that sounds really fun," Goldsberry says laughing. “It's always been my dream to be an action star. I can't believe it took this long for somebody to ask me to do it.”

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Condola Rashad And Screenwriter Marcus Hinchey Talk 'Come Sunday' (Sundance Interview)

Capturing years and decades of a lifetime, and squeezing them in a two-hour time span seems almost impossible. For screenwriter Marcus Hinchey, it was something he felt compelled to do. Eight years ago, Hinchey was on a flight from Los Angeles to New York when he began listening to a 2005 episode of NPR’s This American Life. The episode he'd chosen was entitled "Heretics," and followed the rise and fall of Tusla Pentecostal Bishop Carlton Pearson. After years of preaching at his immensely popular and massive Higher Dimensions church (which also boasted a mix-race congregation), Bishop Pearson came to believe that everyone is already saved and that there is no hell. For his convictions, he would lose everything. Hinchey has been in talks with This American Life producers Ira Glass and Alissa Ship about adapting some of their shows for film, but “Heretics" propelled him forward. “Within about 15 minutes I knew I wanted to write the film," he explained to me in a quiet room tucked away from the noise and frenzy of the Sundance Film Festival. “I had never heard of anybody like Carlton. I grew up in a very different world than he did, but I'd had some experience with Pentecostal churches, and they never convinced me of very much. But when I heard him speak he had this incredible ability to go from scripture into an anecdote with so much humor, it was like listening to Richard Pryor.”

Hinchey set out to write the script for Come Sunday by spending as much time as possible with Bishop Pearson and his family. “By the time I landed I'd listened to the episode twice, and I knew that I really wanted to do it," he recalled. “On the one hand you had this extraordinary character, and there are so few, and on the other hand, you had an almost archetypal story which is a man who gives up everything for what he believes in."

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Boots Riley And The Cast Of 'Sorry To Bother You' On The Bold, Whimsical Film (Sundance Interview)

There are plenty of films with commentary surrounding race, commodification, self-worth, and what it means to be normal. However, none of those films have been as strange, compelling and masterful as Boots Riley’s debut feature film; Sorry to Bother You. As Riley said bluntly in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, "I'm not good at sounding like somebody else or doing what someone else does." Starring the incredible Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius Green, the film follows a young Black man trying to find his purpose in life in an alternative version of Oakland. Living in his uncle’s (Terry Crews) garage, Cass finds solace in the arms of his artist, sign-twirling girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) who chooses activism over affluence.Desperate for more in life, Cass finds a job at telemarketing company where after receiving some advice from an older co-worker (Danny Glover) he quickly rises up the ranks. However, what he isn’t prepared for is what he’ll have to sell or how he'll have to sell out to stay at the top. Steven Yuen, Omari Hardwick, Armie Hammer and Jermaine Fowler also star.

At the MACRO Lounge presented by Shea Moisture at Sundance Film Festival, Riley, Thompson, Yeun and Crews lounged on a plush couch and discussed bringing this magical and shocking film to life. For Riley, who is a musician, activist, and poet, the idea for Sorry to Bother You was born out of the desire to break all the rules. “I read all the hack books like, How to Write a Script in 30 Days and What Not to Do When Writing Your Script," he recalled. “I read those purposely to figure out what rules I could play with. And, as I wrote those first few pages, I realized that that's not the way that I create normally. "

More than just creating a story on his own terms, Riley wasn’t interested in being confined to a certain genre. “A lot of times when people decide, even in music or film, that this thing I'm making is this genre, we edit along the lines of what we're told is the genre," Riley explained. “We leave out a lot of real things, a lot of real joys and pains and awkwardness and other ideas and we stick to this pretty formulated thing. If we're gonna truly make something that comes from artists that aren't usually able to get a voice, those artists have also had other experiences.”

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Jason Mitchell On 'TYREL' And Refusing To Conform (Sundance Interview)

It’s freezing in Park City, Utah, but Jason Mitchell is unphased by the brisk windchill and unending slow flurries. The 31-year-old's career is continually rising, and it shows in his upbeat attitude. His performance on the Lena Waithe helmed The Chi is garnering rave reviews, but Mitchell is at Sundance for another project entirely. In TYREL, the New Orleans native stars as Tyler, a young man who takes a trip to upstate New York with one of his friends. He soon finds himself trying to navigate blinding whiteness as the only Black person in the group. When Mitchell read the script which was penned by the film’s director Sebastian Silva, he jumped at the chance to be involved. “It was the most unorthodox thing I think I'd ever seen,” he explained. “(Sebastian) let me know that he wanted me to have the role, but he also wanted me to make sure all the nuances were right because he’s not Black.” As Black folks, we’ve all experienced that sense of unease that comes with being the only Black person in a room. It’s a feeling Jordan Peele captured perfectly in his stellar Oscar-nominated film Get Out. It's a feeling that Mitchell further emphasizes in TYREL — sans the horror elements. “I feel like it's important to let people know how we feel, meaning Black people, especially Black men in this situation,” Mitchell expressed. I think it's important to do that in a non-violent manner. I thought this was the perfect way to show that everyday struggle. A lot of times my characters go to extremes, like Ronsel in Mudbound— he was very extreme.”

From his breakout role in 2015’s Straight Outta Compton as the legendary Easy-E to his more recent roles in The Chi and Amazon’s Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, Tyler is Mitchell's closest role to an every day Black man, and he wanted to be sure that the screenplay reflected as such. "(Sebastian) really wanted to know if you were Black, how would you feel in this situation," he said, "A lot of the ways I moved reflected that. That's what makes TYREL such a beautiful movie. They have things in there that only black people can get.”

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'Crime + Punishment' Reveals Devastating Problems With No Easy Answers (Sundance Review)

With a population of over eight million people, New York City also boasts the biggest police force in the country. Over 36,000 men and women wield badges in the city, and though crime has gone down overall, the most impoverished communities with the highest minority populations and crime rates continually feel the weight and pressure of the police on their backs. In Crime + Punishment, director Stephen Maing tries to get to the root of the issue by going straight to the source. The film follows twelve minority police officers who have been reprimanded for not fulfilling quotas (obtaining a certain number of summonses and arrests each month) that further disenfranchise people of color. Quotas and mandates like these were supposedly outlawed by the NYPD back in 2010. Maing opens the film in 2014 and follows these officers who have been coined the "NYPD 12" through 2017. What the police reveal and what Maing discovers should enrage us all.

To compile evidence against the police department, the NYPD 12 use hidden cameras and recording devices in their various precincts from The Bronx to Brooklyn to prove that quotas are still very much in use. As a collective, they decide to file a lawsuit against the NYPD for discriminatory practices. The bottom line is this, $900 million dollars of NYC’s budget comes directly from the police force. Since those dollars are made on the backs of brown bodies, the money is generated by whatever means necessary.

Examining all angles, Maing leaves no stone unturned. Along with the police officers who have chosen to risk everything but speaking out, he follows the young Black and Latino men who are constantly harassed and arrested. We're also introduced to private investigator Manny Gomez, a former cop with a massive personality who is determined to be an advocate for the young people who are continually swept up into the broken judicial system.

One of Gomez’s clients is 17-year-old Pedro Hernandez and his devastated mother, Jessica Perez. Hernandez was falsely arrested for attempted murder and imprisoned on Riker’s Island—it was a scenario that rang eerily close to the tragic story of Kalief Browder. Using these various threads, Maing unravels the racism and impropriety in the police force and court system, laying it all out in the open.

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Stellar Performances Carry ‘Night Comes On’ (Sundance Review)

Our society continually fails Black women. As a result, we’re forced to choke back our emotions and vulnerabilities, often turning to anger to cope. Ironically we’re then met with disdain or annoyance. Hurt, pain, and anger can be all-consuming, no one is disputing that. It can fester, stifling the people we are meant to become because we choose to hold on to past injustices. And yet, anger and rage are tricky, they can also be used as fuel. Jordana Spiro's feature film debut, Night Comes On follows Angel LaMere, played by rising star Dominique Fishback. Angel is released from a juvenile detention center just outside of Philadelphia on her eighteenth birthday and soon embarks on a singular mission of revenge against her father for the murder of her mother. Determined to see her journey through, Angel does not expect to have her precocious and hilarious 10-year-old sister, Abby (newcomer Tatum Hall) in tow.

From the very moment she steps beyond the padlock gates, Angel begins to set her plan in motion. She sets off to purchase a gun, discover her father’s whereabouts, and see her sister one final time. However, as Angel soon discovers, sheer will and self-determination won’t get you very far when you only have a busted cellphone and a couple of bucks in your purse.

Spiro and her co-writer Angelica Nwandu‘s airy script leaves a ton of room for quiet spaces and contemplation. Fishback is wonderful as usual. She presents a harden young woman, emotionally armored and determined not to connect with anyone or anything until she’s gotten vengeance for the life that was taken from her. What Angel doesn’t count on is the power of sisterhood.

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'Monsters and Men' Is Magnificent And Profound (Sundance Review)

We often forget that as human beings we are interconnected. No one has a singular experience, good or bad that doesn’t directly affect those closest to them. With everything that is happening in society today, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and isolated. The perils of the world seem to weigh us all down, and we fail to be vulnerable and find comfort in others. Reinaldo Marcus Green’s extraordinary feature film debut Monsters and Men examines what it means to be a person of color in these perilous times and how deeply haunted and affected we all are by acts of violence and police brutality. Told in a triptych of stories that are connected but don’t necessarily overlap, Green captures the intricacies of New York City and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn in a way that is reminiscent to Spike Lee’s love letters to his hometown. However, Green is not trying to pay homage; he’s intent on taking a stand.

The first part of the film follows Manny (Hamilton alum Anthony Ramos), a young father with major life changes on the horizon. Coming home one evening, he records the death of his good friend Darius Larson on his cell phone. It’s a ripped-from-the-headlines scenario, nearly identical to the 2014 death of Eric Garner. Big D, as he was known around the way, was a staple in the community. He was known for selling loose squares outside of the bodega and giving the kids who rode by a dollar here and there. Traumatized by Big D’s death and tormented by the NYPD who threaten him to keep quiet, Manny must decide what to do, a decision that could greatly alter not just his life but the life of his pregnant girlfriend and young daughter.

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