How The Searing Short Film 'Haven' Hones In On The Beauty And Horrors of Black Girlhood

Some films remain forever embedded in your psyche and stick with you long after the final credits roll. Writer/director Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s searing short story Haven is exactly this type of film. In a few short minutes, Haven hones in on the beauty and horrors of black girlhood -- tackling a subject that is often buried in the black community. After the film’s premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, I chatted with Fyffe-Marshall and Haven executive producer Tamar Bird about the film, its perfect casting and why it’s so important to tell painful stories. The idea for Haven was sparked by a conversation that Fyffe-Marshall had one day with her director of photography. "My DP Jordan Oram (Drake’s “God’s Plan") had shown me another film, and it was about two people in a room," she remembered. "So he sparked something in me. I thought, ‘What's something that as black women we don't see a lot of on TV?’ For me, it was a black daughter getting her hair done. That's something that nearly all black women went through at least once a week as a child. So, I started with that, and it just became Haven.”

Once the idea was formed, Fyffe-Marshall found the perfect collaborator in Bird, an actress and award-winning Canadian filmmaker. "Kelly and I have known each other for about six years," Bird revealed. "When she presented this to me, I remember saying, 'This is it. Don't do anything to it, don't change anything. This is perfect. This is what we need; this is what the world needs.' From there we just wanted to make it as true to our childhoods as possible — that nostalgic feeling of listening to reggae music in the background and watching TV while you're getting your hair done."

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In Nia DaCosta's Tessa Thompson-Starrer 'Little Woods,' Women Save Themselves (Tribeca Review)

Women are constantly underestimated – shoved in corners and preyed upon as if we’re supposed to shrink into ourselves and wait for someone (typically a man) to come save us. And yet, for as long as hardships have existed and sexist rules and regulations have tried to box us in, women have found ways to rebel against societal norms and write our own stories. In her feature film debut, Little Woods, writer/director Nia DaCosta tells the story of two women determined to make a better life for themselves. In the poverty-stricken and depressing town of Little Woods, North Dakota, DaCosta paints the story of two sisters, Ollie (Tessa Thompson) and Deb (Lily James) who are trying to piece together a life for themselves after the death of their mother. Scrappy and determined, Ollie has set up a coffee stand out of her pickup truck, serving hot beverages and sandwiches to the men working in the town's plant. It’s a long way away from her days as a prescription drug dealer -- a job she started out of necessity to help her ailing mother. As the final days of her probation loom, an opportunity for a new start elsewhere keep her determined to stay on the right path despite foreclosure notices on her mother's house and her sister Deb’s frantic cry for help.

Deb isn't faring much better than her sister. A single mother with a deadbeat drunken ex (James Badge Dale), she can’t make a sound decision to save her life. Desperate for her independence and yet hopelessly reliant on her sister for help, Deb is too overwhelmed to think straight, and it’s up to Ollie to save her and her young son.

Little Woods is a bold feminist tale of sisterhood, tenacity and the weariness of being female in a world always trying to harm you. Set against the sparse but immensely beautiful Great Plains, DaCosta paints an empathetic portrait of America's opioid problem. For Ollie, selling drugs becomes a means of survival. However, she suffers in a constant state of anxiety, and she finds herself in the crosshairs of Bill (Luke Kirby), Little Woods' big-time drug dealer whose volatile outbursts leave her on edge. The nation's broken healthcare system is also a major thread in this film. Affordable healthcare and prescriptions are difficult to come by in general. The impoverished folks in Little Woods have it worse. Women, in particular, have no real access to complete healthcare and abortion services because North Dakota is a conservative state -- despite 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling.

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Visionary Filmmaker Khalik Allah On His Transformative Second Feature, 'Black Mother'

Black women reign in Black Mother, the second feature from filmmaker and photographer Khalik Allah. The Jamaican-Iranian artist returned to his motherland, Jamaica, for the intimate, poetic feature. Framed in three trimesters of a woman's pregnancy, Black Mother follows numerous island natives -- everyone from Kingston prostitutes and Rastafarians to the holy women who have peculiar ties to Christianity. Allah never intended to make this feature. He went to Jamaica to explore and capture the scenery and its people through his lens. "The story just came step by step," he reflected on a chilly April day in New York City. "I didn't even know it was going to be focused on black women in Jamaica originally. My sensibility as an artist, as a photographer, was just more or less like, ‘Yo, let's just go create beautiful images. Let's just start shootin' stuff.’ My mother is Jamaican. She is a black mother. However, the film itself, that title represents so much more than just my mom. It's not really about my mom although she's in the film; it also represents a play on that term "dark matter." As far as the universe -- it's relating the universe to the womb. I started finding my different themes such as food, herbs, the land, water, all of those things represent the Earth. The Earth is the woman."

With no distinct narrative, Allah allows his heavy visual style and his subjects to speak for themselves. Separating hs audio from the footage, the people of Jamaica provide their testimonies in place of a soundtrack. Allah also refused to use subtitles. "I was happy to hear from the audience like, ‘Yo, I'm glad you didn't put subtitles there,'" he recalled. "The parts that people weren't able to get is okay too because it's not the type of film that you gotta be stuck to every detail. The film is really intended to take you inward, this is a film that encourages you to close your eyes. You know, certain people came back to me after seeing this and were like, ‘Yo, this made me want to get in touch with my family. I don't really speak to my Mom that much. I don't speak to my family at all. I don't have a good relationship with them; I want to get tighter with my family now.' That was like the best comment that I could get."

Allah's journey with Black Mother began in 2015, just as his first feature Field Niggas began blowing up. The Harlem native returned to Jamaica to observe the island and examine how his relationship with his mother’s homeland had shifted and changed since his childhood and after the death of his beloved grandfather. "Some of my deepest impressions of life were in Jamaica," Allah explained. "I've been going since 1988 when I was three. Just going back and forth all my life, definitely I've seen the good and the bad. I've seen the opulence, Jamaica has some amazing places, but in the film, I really wanted to show the underbelly. I didn't want to make it seem like this paradise island where tourists go to kick back, and it's all good. Jamaica is an island that has been raped by the British in the form of colonialism and slavery. Then it became a service economy where all the economics is based off the tourism and providing service and stuff like that. In that way, (the island) has become a prostitute in a way. That's just my analysis of lookin' at it through history."

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On Set With 'Superfly': Remixing The Story For The 21st Century With Atlanta As The Backdrop

In the early ‘70s Gordon Parks' Shaft, Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and Gordon Parks Jr.’s Super Fly forever altered how black folks could be seen on screen. Black actors were no longer relegated to the sidelines as servants or even the polished and collected characters that Sir Sidney Poitier mastered in previous decades. These films ushered the Blaxploitation era and broke the mold, allowing black people to step into the spotlight as the varied and multi-dimensional people that we are. Now, over forty years later, visionary filmmaker Director X (Rihanna’s “Work”) is picking up his camera to remix (not reboot) Parks Jr.'s visceral tale of the cocaine dealer, Youngblood Priest. Played by Grown-ish’s Trevor Jackson, Priest has grown weary of the drug game and is determined to do one last big job before getting out for good. On a rainy day in February, I stepped inside one of Atlanta's most renowned nightclubs. The lounge was transformed and redressed as Masquerade Strip Club --a glittering and upscale parlor full of Cirque du Soleil-like dancers. It was as fabulous as you can imagine. I knew immediately that this was miles away from the gritty streets of 1972's Harlem.

A few short weeks into filming, and the set was buzzing with activity. As I sat perched on the balcony, I could see Director X on the ground floor directing the actors which include Jackson, Jason Mitchell, Big Bank Black and Kaalan Walker, among others. The director seemed completely in his element four months from the film's release date. In a world that seems increasingly obsessed with reboots and revamps, resurrecting Super Fly has been in the works for quite some time. "I was always a fan of Blaxploitation films," The Matrix trilogy producer Joel Silver explained as he made his rounds on the set. "It took me a long time to get the rights to Super Fly. Warner's put the movie out in the early '70s, but they only had a one-picture license. I (finally) got it in 2001 or 2002. We went to the studio, but they didn't want to call it Super Fly, and they didn't want the same story. About two years ago I got a call from Steve Shore, the son of the original film’s producer Sig Shore. He said, ‘Are you still interested in Super Fly?' He'd just been approached by Starz. I said, ‘No, no, no. I want it. I want it.’"

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Netflix's 'Come Sunday' Will Strike A Chord In Even The Most Reluctant Among Us (Review)

Religion is one thing, but faith is something else entirely. In 1998, Pentecostal Bishop Carlton Pearson had a revelation about his faith and his understanding of the word of God that rattled him to his core. His new radical beliefs rippled through his life so abruptly that he lost everything he once held dear to him. Based on Bishop Pearson’s life and a 2005 episode of NPR’s This American Life entitled "Heretics," director Joshua Marston’s arresting Come Sunday forces its audience to look inward and evaluate what we truly believe. A superb Chiwetel Ejiofor takes on the cadence and stature of the Tusla-based minister who was able to fill the pews of his massive Higher Dimensions church each Sunday with both black and white parishioners. Deeply committed to capturing the period and the environment of the Bible Belt, Marston hones in on everything from the frenzy of the evangelical movement to the eclectic style of the late ‘90s. His attention to detail, even filming the bishop’s worn and written in Bible, made the film realistic. Religion can be a difficult subject for Hollywood to tackle, but in his beautifully nuanced portrayal, Ejiofor captures a man who risked everything for the chance to speak his truth.

Amid the Rwandan genocide and grappling with the death of his beloved uncle (Danny Glover) who never gave his life to the Lord, Bishop Pearson hears God’s voice and has an epiphany. He believes that everyone is already saved and that there is no hell. On the pulpit one faithful Sunday he declares, “The God that we worship, from the parts of the Bible that we focus on, that God is a monster … worse than Hitler.” At the time, Bishop Pearson was affectionately referred to as Oral Robert’s “black son” in his community. His revelation, therefore, would crack his world open.

It’s not just Ejiofor who is captivating in this film, Condola Rashad is masterful as his often overlooked wife, Gina Pearson. A reluctant first lady and an outsider, Rashad presents a woman who continually sacrifices her needs for the church. Subverting the image of the meek and docile wife, Gina voices her opinions and ideas even when they aren’t popular. Rashad’s restraint in the role is what allows Gina’s strength to shine. When everyone else abandons Bishop Pearson, Gina remains steadfast, loyal and at his side — urging him to press forward despite the obstacles.

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HBO 'King In the Wilderness' Executive Producer On The Film And Examining Dr. King's Final Years

It’s been fifty-years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated leaving an unfulfilled dream, a blueprint for humanity, a turbulent country, and a furious race of people behind. In these past five decades, Dr. King has been immortalized; hoisted up as an almost mythical being – a martyr of the Civil Right's Movement. Though history has painted Dr. King in a certain light, his closest friends and allies haven’t forgotten the last few years of his life – years that were full of confliction and uncertainty. In his searing HBO film, King in the Wilderness director Peter Kunhardt chronicles the last few years of the Civil Right’s pioneer's life – a time where even his beliefs and doctrine toward peace and non-violence were tested. A week before the film’s premiere I chatted with novelist, screenwriter, and professor Trey Ellis who served as an executive producer and interviewer for the project. For Ellis, it was essential to look back at Dr. King’s life and legacy through the memories of those who stood by his side day after day. King in the Wilderness gives an alternative view of a man who stood in the midst of an increasingly unstable country, rallying for the end of racism, war, and poverty.

Ellis had been yearning for a project on Dr. King’s life for some time, so when he heard that Kuhardt was putting something together at HBO, he jumped at the chance to get involved. "I talked to HBO a long time ago, but then around January of 2017 Peter approached me about this new take on Dr. King to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his assassination," Ellis explained. "We all decided that the later King, King in the Wilderness was the least told and also the most important for what we're going through today. So I was really excited, to come on board to do most of the interviews. Taylor (Branch) interviewed Harry Belafonte, Andy Young, and Reverend C.T. Vivian and I had the pleasure of interviewing the rest of them. We spent a year traveling around the country talking to real-life heroes for two to four hours at a time. Some of them were heroes that I knew, like John Lewis, or Jesse Jackson and others like Cleveland Sellers or Bernard Lafayette were people that I’d never heard of before, but once I got to speak with them, I was just so amazed by their strength."

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Tyler Perry Risks It All With 'Acrimony' (Review)

Since the beginning of time, women have been dismissed as crazed or deranged, their emotions ridiculed and shoved aside as irrational or without merit. Though mental illness and unhealthy behaviors are certainly very real, women aren’t often allotted the space to tell their stories and to speak their truths without fear of backlash or being confined to some heinous outdated stereotype. In his new suspense thriller Acrimony, Tyler Perry sets the stage for one woman, Melinda Gayle (portrayed by Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson) to tell her story — a tale riddled with heartbreak and betrayal. Beautifully shot in crisp, dark greys, the film opens in the aftermath of Melinda and her ex-husband Robert’s (portrayed by Lyriq Bent) marriage. It’s clear from her outbursts and enraged emotional state that Melinda is not dealing with the demise of her relationship well. Order by the courts to attend counseling sessions, a reluctant Melinda dials back time eighteen years and begins to piece together the romance between herself and Robert – which started in college and eventually led to the inside of a courtroom.

Henson, as usual, is intensely captivating as Melinda, her fury literally penetrates the screen as she relays the story of her relationship to her therapist and to the audience. Perry captures her various emotional states, slowly building to her current boiling point. Bent, who rose to prominence in the Saw franchise and who currently sizzles as Jamie Overstreet in Netflix’sShe’s Gotta Have It is also fantastic. The chemistry between the actors is very much that of two people who have spent nearly two-decades of their lives with one another.

Instead of forcing Henson and Bent to play younger versions of themselves, relative newcomers Ajiona Alexus (who plays young Cookie on Empire), and Antonio Madison are wonderfully cast as young Melinda and young Robert respectively. Their stellar performances with all of the levity, earnestness, and hope of youth created a steady foundation. They were also able to connect their characters seamlessly with Bent and Henson's older version.

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Lyriq Bent Talks 'Acrimony,' Storytelling And Why He'll Never Be Put In A Box

Lyriq Bent is captivating. At six-feet tall, the dashing actor exudes warmth and maturity on screen and in real life. Since stepping into the entertainment industry in the early 2000s, Bent has been gaining momentum, starring in everything from the infamous Saw franchise to the acclaimed mini-series, The Book of Negros and more recently, in Spike Lee’s Netflix joint, She’s Gotta Have It. However, Bent’s latest venture, starring opposite Taraji P. Henson in Tyler Perry’s R-rated crime thriller,Acrimony will reveal a different side of the Kingston native. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Bent and I sat down to chat about the flick, working with Perry, and why he and Henson just clicked. Though he’s been in the industry for some time, Bent hadn’t had the opportunity to work with Perry until now. "(Acrimony) was so different than what (Tyler Perry’s) normally done," he explained. "The opportunity to help him create a beautiful story in a different genre was important to me because I can see we have to tell our own stories, and Tyler's done more than his part in trying to do so. Now that he has so many films under his belt, he felt it necessary to change genres, so I felt very lucky that he thought that I was capable or that he had the confidence in me to make that crossover."

For Bent, Acrimony is much more than a tale of an embittered, unhinged woman out for revenge. The foundation of the film was grounded in a young romance between Bent and Henson's characters Robert and Melinda which blossomed over time. "I liked the fact that it's a story about human nature," he revealed. "It's about emotions. It's about two people who love each other and try to build a life together, and they go through an emotional rollercoaster. They try to bring it all back home at the end of the day."

'Star' Showrunner Karin Gist On Being The Boss, Telling Black Women's Stories & The Explosive Midseason Premiere

Karin Gist is shinning. The Star showrunner and executive producer is elevating television as one of the few Black female showrunners in the industry, and she’s taken on her role in stride. Still, Gist’s journey in TV which led her to the sets of Girlfriends, One Tree Hill, Grey’s Anatomy, and Revenge among others didn’t start off as seamlessly as one would assume. Ahead of the mid-series premiere of Star and during Women’s History Month, Shadow and Act sat down to chat with Gist about her career, why showrunning speaks to her soul, and how it feels to be one of the only Black women calling the shots in television. Gist’s path to storytelling was unconventional to say the least. "I moved out to LA to practice law for about two and a half years, and honestly I was spending most of my day daydreaming in my law office just knowing that it wasn't the right choice in life for me," she explained. "I had this feeling that there was a now or never. Why not take a risk and try to do something that I thought I'd love? Ultimately, I ended up loving it. I love writing for television and telling stories. I tried to find a path to that even in practicing law. I moved from corporate law to family law at one point, and that was more interesting because of course, it's stories about people and emotions. It was interesting, but still, I was yearning to do something more creative and luckily I found my path on Girlfriends — my first show."

Throughout her career, Gist has focused on female-centric stories. For the Spelman alum, it’s been a blessing to put women at the center. "I’ve always said how lucky I was to fall into my dream job on my dream show, Girlfriends," she revealed. "I was able to learn the craft and practice the craft but tell stories that reflected my life at the time and my friends at the time. That is such a rare thing, especially in this business, especially as a Black woman. So, that was a happy coincidence. I am drawn to telling stories about women, about women of color. That has become my drive in storytelling. I just so happened to get my first job on a show like that.”

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Jay Pharoah Talks 'UnUnsane,' Why He Isn't Afraid Of Anything And How Ava DuVernay Recognized His Versatility

Jay Pharoah won’t be contained. After an electric exit from Saturday Night Live in 2016 where he spoke out against being "a yes man,” and the lack of diversity that has continually plagued the program since its inception four decades ago, Pharoah has been everywhere. From the comedic stage to a Showtime comedy series, and now in the gripping Steven Soderbergh stalker thriller Unsane, the comedian is embracing life as it comes. Unsane follows a young woman Sawyer (The Crown’s Claire Foy) who is involuntarily committed to a mental institution where she is forced to confront her greatest fear – the man who has been stalking her. Pharoah plays Nate, a fellow patient whose battling his own demons while holding on to some shocking secrets.

On a brisk Sunday morning in New York City, Pharoah sat down to chat with Shadow and Act about Unsane, his forthcoming album, and why he isn’t afraid of anything. According to the 30-year-old, the opportunity to step into Nate’s shoes came as a bit of a surprise. “My agent hit me up,” he revealed. “She said, ‘Well, you know Steven Soderbergh has this film. He wants to work with you on this. It's a cool film and its something you should do.’ This wasn't some random director DMing you on Instagram saying, 'I’ve got this project. You'd be perfect for it.’ This was an established legend in the game, so it was a no-brainer for me. When we did have a conversation, he said, ‘I know you do comedies, but I can see you have a dramatic side. I want to show that to the world if you have the opportunity to do it.' I was like, ‘Man. Whatever you need, I'm down. Let's do it.’”

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Ser'Darius Blain Talks 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' And Gives Details On The 'Charmed' Reboot

Ser'Darius Blain isn’t a man you’d easily forget. His towering frame stands at nearly six feet, five inches tall, so you probably remember him from Starz’s Survivor's Remorse as Jupitor Blackmon. If not, you’ll certainly recognize him from the massive action adventure comedy, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle where he starred opposite Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The thunderous sequel to the beloved 1995 classic starring the late Robin Williams caught critics and audiences by surprise and sat at the top of the box office as the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2017. For Blain, it has been a whirlwind. “When you're in this business long enough, you don't expect anything,” he explained to me as we chatted just ahead of Jumanji’s DVD release. “I was honestly just on pins and needles praying that it would at least get like $300 million. Now, we're on our way to a billion. You go into this just hoping and praying that people like it because sometimes audiences can be hot and cold about certain projects especially when you're touching on something that was a cult classic the way that Jumanji was. I'm relieved more than anything.”

In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Blain stars as Anthony "Fridge" Johnson, a high school student who while serving detention with some of his classmates, gets teleported into a ’90s video game called Jumanji. Once he’s in the game, Fridge becomes Franklin "Mouse" Finbar, a zoologist (portrayed by Hart) who is essentially around to act as a minion for the hunky explorer Dr. Smolder Bravestone (portrayed by Johnson). Blain and Hart collaborated to make sure Fridge was cohesive throughout the film. “I was able to talk to (Kevin) and game plan about how we were going to tackle this character," Blain revealed. “Ultimately, I found that Kevin just had this huge personality. He's got bravado. He does it in an internal kind of way, but I am physically large. So, we decided to play off of that. When Fridge gets sucked into the video game, his personality showed, and when I'm out in the real world, my physical appearance was larger than life. We also had some similar body movements and some similar vocal cues. Kevin's favorite phrase to say is, ‘What the hell,’ so there's a lot of those in there. I think it worked."

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Nijla Mu'min On Her Stellar Coming-Of-Age Film 'Jinn' (SXSW Interview)

Girlhood, Black girlhood specifically can be examined through a variety of different lens. From locations to characters, girlhood can look drastically different. And yet, when told correctly, these stories can be a tapestry for representation, identification, and understanding. With her debut feature film Jinn, director Nijla Mu’min examines Black girlhood from the perspective of a mother-daughter relationship. Jinn centers around Summer (Zoe Renee), a bold and vivacious high school senior on the cusp of womanhood just as her mother Jade (Luke Cage’s Simone Missick) converts to Islam –effecively shattering Summer’s world as she knows it. Dorian Missick and Kelvin Harrison, Jr. also star in the film. Just before Mu’min won the SXSW Special Jury Recognition for Writing, we sat down to chat about her semi-biographical film, girlhood, and how cultures meld and clash with one another.

Mu’min’s upbringing and background helped her birth Jinn — it was a story that she’d been crafting all of her life. “I grew up in the Bay Area," she explained. "My father is Muslim, and he converted to Islam in the late 1960s in Oakland. When I was born, I was born into that community. My mother had converted to Islam when she married my father. I grew up going to the masjid, being immersed in that culture, and being around so many different Muslims and so many distinct personalities. The masjid that we went to was in this beautiful Victorian building with all these rooms and colors. I always knew that I wanted to tell a story that was centered in that community; in that space.”

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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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