'For Now' Feels Jumbled & Harried

Sibling relationships aren't often a focal point in cinema. Though there have been some examinations of the dynamics of elder and adolescent siblings —the connections that we forge with our siblings are hardly ever explored during our twenties. Early adulthood is typically the time when sibling relationships begin to shift and change. Real authentic friendships are forged, and childhood labels and expectations are often stripped away or peeled back. In their film, For Now —writer/directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes examine a sibling relationship over the course of a short road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

For Now follows Hannah (Hannah Barlow), a twenty-something, Australian ex-pat and aspiring actress who is trying to form a career for herself while juggling her continually fractured relationships with her live-in beau, Kane (Kane Senes) and best friend Katherine (Katherine DuBois) —who is currently crashing on the couple’s couch. When Hannah’s younger brother Connor (Connor Barlow) flies into town to audition for the San Francisco Ballet Company —the foursome use the opportunity to embark on a road trip. Their journey soon pushes them all to examine some very harsh truths about themselves and their relationships with each other.

The majority of For Now is a chaotic jumble. Both Kane and Katherine are self-involved to the point of nausea. Additionally, the lack of boundaries and the disfunction between the group make the movie difficult to watch. Barlow and Senes chose not to use a traditional script when shooting the film. Instead —all of the scenes were 100% improvised. Unfortunately, this did not work entirely in their favor. Instead of a film focused on the uncertainty of the future and the frailties of youth, the audience is left adrift —landing in the middle of a party we neither understand nor wanted to be invited to in the first place. The characters are so all over the place that they become more frustrating than relatable.

Despite the frenzy of the film, Hannah and Connor are most endearing— leaving the audience wanting to know more about their relationship and how they’ve individually dealt with the tragic loss of their parents. However, because of the grating and conflicting personalities of the foursome as a whole —unpacking the siblings' relationship gets bogged down in a disorganized and harried tone of the movie. We're left instead with an exhausting plot full of bad decisions and tropes about entitled millennials.

Still, For Now has some merits. In the final twenty minutes of the movie —the siblings, who have been dancing around one another have a major showdown —unveiling years of pain, misunderstanding, and expectations. But, as soon as For Now reigns us in, it's over.

It would have been more poignant to examine grief, loss and how that can twist and bend the ties that siblings have with one another. The pain of losing her parents in a tragic car accident has made Hannah loving but overbearing. Meanwhile, Connor has becoming increasingly detached. As Hannah's dreams continue to slip through her fingers, she’s desperate for Connor to grasp on to his —even if that means sacrificing his happiness. The family home videos sprinkled throughout the narrative were also effective in creating a space for the brother/sister duo to exist in a different time and space.

Though their lives are chaotic at the moment, these videos prove that a sense of stability and constant love was once very much a part of Hannah and Connor existence. It also allows the viewer to connect with Hannah, who no matter how overbearing or Type A she may be seems like the only person with a sense of purpose or trajectory in the film.

The themes in For Now —loss, transition, and connection are all present. Regrettably, the film's jumpy narrative and wholly unlikeable characters don’t allow those topics to shine through. Instead, the audience is left with a puzzling display of selfishness and aloofness that does a disservice to the stellar acting in the film.

For Now is now available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon and Vudu along with cable providers DirecTV and Comcast.

Aramide A. Tinubu is a film critic and entertainment writer. As a journalist, her work has been published in EBONY, JET, ESSENCE, Bustle, The Daily Mail, IndieWire and Blavity. She wrote her master’s thesis on Black Girlhood and Parental Loss in Contemporary Black American Cinema. She’s a cinephile, bookworm, blogger and NYU + Columbia University alum. You can find her reviews on Rotten Tomatoes or A Word With Aramide or tweet her @wordwitharamide 

Akira Akbar Talks Becoming Young Beth On 'This Is Us' And Monica Rambeau In 'Captain Marvel'

For generations, Black women in Hollywood have labored both in front of and behind the camera to widen the lane for Black talent. They've fought to make sure that future generations would have a path where they could soar. Though there is much more work to be done, we are finally beginning to see the fruits of that labor as a new crop of mega-talent faces rise and take their place on the big and small screens. Newcomer Akira Akbar is ready to take center stage. Though the dimple-faced actress has had some small appearances on shows like Grey's Anatomy and Criminal Minds and she’s modeled for everyone from Nike to Levi’s, Akbar made a huge splash recently when she appeared on NBC’s acclaimed series, This Is Us as Young Beth.

In the Season 3 episode entitled "Our Little Island Girl" — we finally learned more about Beth Pearson’s (Susan Kelechi Watson) backstory, and we got to meet her as a child and as a teenager. The episode, which also starred the incomparable Phylicia Rashad as Beth’s mom Carol and Rachel Hilson as Teen Beth, addressed the trope of the “Strong Black Woman” and is still being discussed and analyzed more than a week later. With such a breathtaking performance and her upcoming role in Marvel’s Captain Marvel, Shadow and Act sat down to chat with Akbar about stepping into the spotlight.

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Director Yoruba Richen Unpacks the REAL History of 'The Negro Motorist Green Book' In The Doc 'Green Book: Guide to Freedom'

Much has been said about the contentious Academy Award-winning film, Green Book. The feature film is based on the alleged friendship of Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) —a world-renowned Black queer musician and his driver —a white man named Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen). Shadow And Act called Green Book a "white savior film," and some of Dr. Shirley’s family members have spoken out against it, exclusively telling Shadow And Act that it’s “a symphony of lies.” One of the more alarming elements about the controversial film has been its erasure of Victor Hugo Green’s The Negro Motorist Green Book. Though it's titled Green Book, the ground-breaking travel guide is hardly mentioned in the movie.

In the midst of all of the back and forth regarding Green Book — acclaimed filmmaker Yoruba Richen is turning her lens back on Victor Hugo Green, the well-connected Black postal worker who published the Black guide for travelers from the 1930s to the 1960s. In her superb documentary, The Green Book: Guide to Freedom, Richen examines the history of The Negro Motorist Green Book and the legacy of Black-owned businesses that still prevail more than fifty years after the last Green Book was published. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Richen sat down to talk to Shadow and Act about the history of travel in the Black community, the Black middle class in Jim Crow America, and, of course, Green Book.

"I was approached to direct this film in the summer of 2017," Richen revealed. "I thought I knew my Black history, but this was an aspect that I did not know, and I was immediately intrigued and interested because it gave us such a rich way to understand various themes that we explore in the film. It just seemed like such a great way to uncover this. 

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'Hummus! The Movie' Is Informative and Well-Framed

Every day the world seems increasingly divided about politics, religion and the nuances of human life. Now, more than ever —it appears that there is very little that we can agree on as a people. Instead of coming together, we’ve learned to turn our backs on one another, closing our ears and our hearts to those whose beliefs differ from our own. However, there is one thing that people still connect with and take pleasure in—food. When you evaluate food for what it is —fuel for the human body, it certainly doesn’t seem that revolutionary. And yet, in his documentary, Hummus! The Movie award-winning filmmaker Oren Rosenfeld unpacks just how critical hummus and its history are to the human spirit.

Set across various regions in Israel —Rosenfeld explores the history of hummus, examining its origins the Middle East and its journey west into homes in the United States. The film follows Jalil, a Christian-Arab restaurateur who has taken over his family’s eatery and is looking to expand it beyond its traditions as the only Kosher restaurant around for miles. There is Eliyahu; a former migrant turned Hasidic Jew who has several hummus based restaurants across Israel. Oliver the Monk takes turns with his brothers preparing meals, and most interestingly, Suheila —the only woman to own her own restaurant in the Arab market. At age 50 having never been married — Suheila delights in her self-sufficiency and the diligence that she puts into her business each day. Through hummus and the people whose lives revolve around it, Rosenfeld seeks to examine the binds the hold us together as people instead of the ones that break us apart.

Hummus! The Movie is interesting enough. The film explores how the superfood is at the core of so many dishes across the Christian and Arab world. It is the through-line when it comes to traditional dishes that individual groups gravitate towards. Still, what’s most intriguing about the film is its examination of the dogged amount of work that it takes to maintain a restaurant and its customer base. All of the owners/ chefs work tirelessly day after day in the midst of a world where Muslims, Jew, and Christians co-exist. However, there is also a ton of competition surrounding the “best hummus” in the region so pride and familial legacies are also at the core of this film.

The documentary is beautifully shot, with images of the city and the county sprinkled throughout the film. We see everything from the gas fires burning in hot restaurant kitchens to camels grassing on grasses. Rosenfeld has turned his lens on a world that has often been erased from or overlooked in film. Instead of putting the spotlight on the Israel that we know from the news headlines —the filmmaker steps into the country to get a more compressive look at daily life from its people.

Though the film was very even when it came to examining its various subjects — it may have been stronger had it just focused on one person. Suheila's story was most profound. A stickler for cleanliness with a near-magical worth ethic— she shatters all of the stereotypes that have been put forth in popular culture about Muslim women and the lives that they lead. This was especially compelling because restaurant work has traditionally been considered men’s work in the Middle East.

Overall, Hummus! The Movie was informative and well-framed. Centering a dish that seems so inconsequential to so many, Rosenfeld delivers a unique project that unpacks the history of hummus, traditions, and how we connect to one another on a human level.

Hummus! The Movie is now on DVD, and digital platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, as well as on DVD.

Aramide A. Tinubu is a film critic and entertainment writer. As a journalist, her work has been published in EBONY, JET, ESSENCE, Bustle, The Daily Mail, IndieWire and Blavity. She wrote her master’s thesis on Black Girlhood and Parental Loss in Contemporary Black American Cinema. She’s a cinephile, bookworm, blogger and NYU + Columbia University alum. You can find her reviews on Rotten Tomatoes or A Word With Aramide or tweet her @wordwitharamide 

'Eve's Bayou' 22 Years Later: Filmmaker Kasi Lemmons Reflects On Her Classic Film

Black girls often get erased in Hollywood. There have been few instances like Spike Lee’s 1994 film Crooklyn or the forthcoming Marsai Martin-produced movie, Little that have centered Black girls. With her 1997 directional debut, Eve's Bayou filmmaker Kasi Lemmons blew the lid off of a new type of storytelling by honing in on the perspective of a young Black girl. Set in lavish Louisiana in the 1960s, Lemmons’ Eve’s Bayou follows 10-year-old Eve Batiste, a tenacious and curious young Black girl who chronicles the summer of her father’s death. When the film was released, its story and cast— including Jurnee Smollett, Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Witfield, Debbie Morgan, Meagan Good, and Diahann Carroll— got glowing reviews. It became the highest-grossing indie film of that year.

Twenty-two years later, we are still celebrating the film’s success and legacy. At a recent special screening of Eve's Bayou in partnership with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science at the Metrograph in New York City—Shadow and Act spoke with Lemmons and acclaimed film editor Teri Shropshire about the journey to make the film, what it represents today and Lemmons’s upcoming Harriet Tubman biopic.

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Russell Hornsby On 'Proven Innocent' And Playing Characters With Depth: 'I Don’t Want To Be The Actor Who Just Entertains'

The American judicial system is broken. Its foundation has never been sustainable, and as a result, people often fall through the cracks and are left to waste away in prison cells. Luckily, as technology has advanced, justice groups have been able to use new forms of evidence to get convictions overturned, setting some who have been wrongfully convicted free.

In the new Fox drama, Proven Innocent, Empire co-creator Danny Strong, along with David Elliot and Stacy Greenberg, explore the lives of the wrongfully convicted, and how the stain of conviction can never truly be washed away.

Set in Chicago, Proven Innocent follows Madeline Scott (Rachelle Lefevre) a defense attorney who, as a teen, was convicted along with her brother of murdering her best friend, Rosemary Lynch. After spending ten years in prison before eventually getting her conviction overturned, Madeline went to law school before returning to Chicago to open the Injustice Defense Group with her law partner Ezekiel ‘Easy’ Boudreau (Russell Hornsby), communications director Violet Bell (Nikki M. James) and private investigator Bodie Quick (Vincent Kartheiser). Though she’s eager to help free innocent people, Madeline is also determined to take down the man who put her in jail, corrupt powerhouse prosecutor Gore Bellows (Kelsey Grammer), while uncovering what really happened to Rosemary.

Ahead of the show’s premiere, Shadow and Act flew to Chicago to visit the Proven Innocent set. We sat down with Russell Hornsby to discuss the series, why he was hooked from the first script and why certain roles are suddenly falling in his lap.

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'Moonlight' Scribe Tarell Alvin McCraney Tackles NBA Exploitation Of Black Athletes In Netflix Film 'High Flying Bird'

Written by Oscar winner Tarell Alvin McCraney (Best Screenplay, Moonlight) and directed by Steven Soderbergh (entirely on the iPhone) — Netflix’s High Flying Bird is a film about the business of professional basketball, but it’s also a film about race. Exploring themes and elements from Professor Harry Edwards’ 1969 text, The Revolt of the Black Athlete— High Flying Bird follows Ray Burke (André Holland)—a high powered New York sports agent desperately trying to hold on to his newest client, rookie Erick Scott (Melvin Gregg), the NBA’s number one draft pick. A would-be New York Knicks player, Erick’s career and life have come to a standstill due to a 6-month league lockout. That's what happens when the the uber-rich teams' owners and the Players Association, led by Myra (Sonja Sohn), can't come to an agreement.

Major names like Steph Curry and LeBron James (in the real world and in this drama) are virtually unaffected by lockouts—which delay income and training. However, for newcomers like Erick who weren't even being paid at the college level —financial and mental burdens are a very real thing.

Disgusted by the antics of the higher-ups in the organization, Ray and his assistant Sam (Zazie Beetz) conceive of a scheme that will put the game back into the players' hands and force the owners to their knees.

Using McCraney’s rich writing and Soderbergh’s lens to shine a light on the history of racial oppression within sports, High Flying Bird illustrates how the love of the game and the sport has often been twisted and used to exploit Black bodies and Black humanity.

Ahead of the film’s debut on Netflix, Shadow and Act sat down to speak with McCraney about the history of this story and why he added his words to the legacy of Black athletic rebellion.

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Exclusive: Noble Jones On Centering His Directorial Debut ‘The Tomorrow Man’

Not many of us are called to stories that center the Midwest, but for writer-director Noble Jones, who is a native New Yorker, there has always been something beautiful about small-town America.

In his debut feature, The Tomorrow Man, Jones explores aging, love and the fear of what’s next. Starring John Lithgow and Blythe Danner as two older people who clutch on to one another in the midst of apocalyptic trepidation, The Tomorrow Man is a whimsical look at companionship and what it means to face death.

Ahead of the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, The Knockturnal sat down to chat with Jones about The Tomorrow Man, getting Lithgow and Danner together on screen, and why this is a film for today. 

“I’m not quite sure why it ends up being about an older couple,” Jones reflected on his characters Ed (Lithgow) and  Ronnie (Danner). “Much of this process is likes a séance, where the character shows up. I have a habit of just creating characters and then ripping for a while. In this case, I just thought it was interesting. I’m a fan of John Ford films and the west. I was watching all of these Ken Burns documentaries, specifically, The West. I put it on a loop.”

Continue reading at The Knockturnal.

'Siempre Bruja' Clings To A Tired Slave Master/ Slave "Love" Story, Crippling the Show’s Magic

Time can mean everything and nothing at all depending on your circumstances. For incarcerated people —specifically those on Death row, and prison employees responsible for ending lives, time is all-consuming. In her masterfully haunting drama, Clemency —director Chinonye Chukwu examines the lives of Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard)— a prison warden, and Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge) — a man on death row. Though Bernadine has worked tirelessly to maintain an emotional masque —one that has allowed her to direct the execution of 12 incarcerated men —her facade is beginning to crack.

With his death warrant signed —Bernadine finds herself drawn to Anthony, a man grasping on to the very last fragments of his sanity as death hovers around him. Just after Clemency's premiere at Sundance Film Festival, and before it won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, Shadow and Act sat down with Chukwu to discuss the unnerving story, and why she was inspired to write it in the first place.

"I was really inspired to tell the story the morning after Troy Davis was executed," Chukwu remembered. "Troy Davis was executed in September 2011, and hundreds of thousands of people protested against his execution, including some retired wardens and directors of corrections. They all banded together and wrote a letter to the governor appealing for clemency, not just on the grounds of potential innocence, but also because of the emotional and psychological consequences they knew that killing Troy would have on the prison staff who were sanctioned to do so."

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Acclaimed Filmmaker Stanley Nelson Talks Getting Into Miles Davis' Head With 'Miles Davis: Birth Of Cool' [Sundance Interview]

If we’re lucky, many of us may have the fortune of doing one extraordinary thing in a lifetime. The late legend Miles Davis had the luck of ten men. The world-renowned trumpet player had an exemplary career that spanned five decades. Though he was temperamental and sometimes vicious, the only time Davis allowed himself to be vulnerable was when he was creating and playing his music. A chameleon who was able to shift and change with the times without ever losing the essence of who he was, Davis lived quite a life. In his brilliant documentary, Miles Davis: Birth of Cool, acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Nelson gives his audience a window into Davis’ life —one that showcases his triumphs and his demons.

The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is comprised of archival footage, studio outtakes, and rare photos. More than that, the documentary is from Davis’ own perspective, with words from his autobiography, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. Nelson also conducted interviews from those closest to Davis, including his family, friends, and contemporaries. Just after the film’s premiere, Shadow and Act sat down with Nelson to discuss his long journey to complete the film, and the tension that came with tackling such a massive icon.

"We started almost fifteen years ago with American Masters," Nelson remembered. "We got permission from the family, and then from Sony Music. Then somehow, some way, the project kind of fell apart and just got scuttled. Then maybe two years ago it got resurrected, so we've been working on it a solid two years now.”

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Chinonye Chukwu Reflects On Her Masterfully Haunting Drama 'Clemency' [Sundance Interview]

Time can mean everything and nothing at all depending on your circumstances. For incarcerated people —specifically those on Death row, and prison employees responsible for ending lives, time is all-consuming. In her masterfully haunting drama, Clemency —director Chinonye Chukwu examines the lives of Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard)— a prison warden, and Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge) — a man on death row. Though Bernadine has worked tirelessly to maintain an emotional masque —one that has allowed her to direct the execution of 12 incarcerated men —her facade is beginning to crack.

With his death warrant signed —Bernadine finds herself drawn to Anthony, a man grasping on to the very last fragments of his sanity as death hovers around him. Just after Clemency's premiere at Sundance Film Festival, and before it won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, Shadow and Act sat down with Chukwu to discuss the unnerving story, and why she was inspired to write it in the first place.

"I was really inspired to tell the story the morning after Troy Davis was executed," Chukwu remembered. "Troy Davis was executed in September 2011, and hundreds of thousands of people protested against his execution, including some retired wardens and directors of corrections. They all banded together and wrote a letter to the governor appealing for clemency, not just on the grounds of potential innocence, but also because of the emotional and psychological consequences they knew that killing Troy would have on the prison staff who were sanctioned to do so."

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'Little Monsters' Is A Bloody Vulgar Delight [Sundance Review]

There is a great divide when it comes to children. While many people view the pint-sized humans as adorable balls of energy, full of spark and shine, others view kids as terrifying, tiny creatures who wreak havoc on the already complicated lives of adults. Abe Forsythe’s absurdly brilliant Little Monsters is about two people who see children from different sides of the coin. However, they are forced to come together to protect a group of Kindergarteners from some very real monsters.

Set in Australia, the film follows Dave (Alexander England) —an outrageous man-child whom after a decade-long relationship is nursing a broken heart and a long-expired dream of being a rock star while sleeping on his big sister's (Nadia Townsend) couch. Unfortunately, Dave’s adult hiatus is interrupted by the presence of his precocious 5-year-old, nephew Felix (Diesel La Torraca). Adorably innocent and allergic to nearly everything under the sun, Felix is delighted by his Uncle Dave. Slipping out from under the watchful eye of his doting but ultra-protective mother, Felix becomes privy to Dave’s constant vulgarity and horrifically violent video games.

One day after dropping Felix at school, Dave becomes enamored with the little boy’s stunning and charming Kindergarten teacher Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o). Determined to get to know her better, Dave finds himself volunteering to chaperone a field trip to Pleasant Valley Farm petting zoo. What begins as a routine excursion transforms into a horrifying, bloody zombie Apocalypse with Dave, Miss Caroline and the kids trapped in the midst of it.

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A Powerful and Cunning Black Girl Stands At the Center Of 'Selah and the Spades' [Sundance Review]

High school can be a very polarizing time. It’s comprised of four years that seem to mean everything while you’re in the midst of them, but nothing at all when you’re reflecting on them in your rearview. Cinema has no shortage of high school depictions—specifically when it comes to analyzing the “mean girl” in film. From Carrie to Cruel Intentions — and of course Mean Girls, there have been plenty of depictions of the vicious popular girl, but there has been nothing quite like director Tayarisha Poe’s debut feature, Selah and the Spades.

Set in rural Pennsylvania on the picturesque grounds of the elite Haldwell boarding school, we meet Selah (Greenleaf's Lovie Simone) —a leader of one of the five factions run by members of the student body. Tarit runs The C, a group made of teacher’s pets gone rogue; Amber runs The Skins who deal with anything that can be gambled on --football in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball every spring.  The Bobbys are run by Bobby, and they handle all of the illegal parties on campus. Two Tom, the head of the prefects, keeps the administration at bay. Then, there are the Spades, run by Selah and her best friend Maxxi (Moonlight actor- Jharrel Jerome), who deal in the most coveted of vices, illegal alcohol and pills. The number one rule that all of the factions abide by is no snitching.

Since drawing up a peace treaty their sophomore year, the factions have worked harmoniously together, outwitting The Heads (Headmaster Banton is portrayed by Jesse Williams) and essentially keeping order in the school. However, in the Spring semester of their senior year, the faction heads are at each other's throats and Selah and her secrets are at the root of this turmoil.

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Chiwetel Ejiofor Talks 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' and Authenticity At Sundance

For decades, BAFTA-winning actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has stunned on the stage and the big screen. With roles in films like 12 Years A Slave and Come Sunday, the Nigerian-English actor never seriously considered stepping on the other side of the camera. That quickly changed when he heard William Kamkwamba’s astounding story. Though he was just a boy in rural Malawi when famine struck his village in the early 2000s, William ingeniously built a windmill pump to bring water to the parched lands, saving his family's life.

Invigorated by Kamkwamba’s autobiography, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Ejiofor would embark on a decade-long journey that would unleash Kamkwamba's magnificent life onto the big screen and set the stage for his own directorial debut. Shadow and Act was present during a conversation at MACRO Lodge at Sundance Film Festival where Ejiofor sat down to chat with producer Adetoro Makinde about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, his journey to bring it to the big screen, and why stories like these need a platform.

"The book came out in 2009," Ejiofor recalled. “A friend of mine was at the launch party for the book and told me about it then. I read it, and I was transported by William Kamkwamba's journey, his ingenuity, his attitude, his way of being, his thought process, his dynamism. There was this sense of humility and depth and intelligence and warmth and understanding of the wider geopolitical situation that was being described."

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'Pahokee' Has A Levity and Warmth Often Lost In Documentaries Depicting Black Rural Life [Sundance Review]

For years, inner city Black life has been a focus in cinema in both the narrative and documentary sectors. Movies like Menace II Society and Hoop Dreams were marketed as the sole depictions of the African American experience. However, in recent years—particularly in documentaries like the Oscar-nominated Hale County, This Morning, This Evening —there have been numerous illustrations of rural Black life. With their film Pahokee— directors Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan join a new class filmmakers including RaMell Ross, Amman Abbasi, and Margaret Byrn in examining present-day Black life in some of the country’s most rural areas.

Located on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach County, Florida and boasting a population of just under 6,000 people Lucas and Bresnan turn their lens on the town of Pahokee. The audience is given a front row seat as the tiny, close-knit community experiences the highs and lows of the 2016-2017 school year. Out of a class of 103 seniors at the Pahokee Middle-High School, Pahokee follows four students, Na’Kerria Nelson, Jocabed Martinez, BJ Crawford and Junior Wallace who are all navigating their way through their final days of adolescence.

Unlike many documentary films that examine impoverished people of color like Phantom Cowboys or Quest, Pahokee does not peel back the layers of the students' personal lives. Instead, the documentary centers the high school, its numerous extracurricular activities, and the frenzy of Homecoming, the Football State Championship, college acceptance, signing day and graduation.

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'Premature' Is A Gripping Account Of A Young Black Woman's Sexual Awakening [Sundance Review]

There is a sort of magic that occurs in those three wistful months just after high school graduation. It’s that short wrinkle in time before we leap eagerly into adulthood, whether heading to college or into some other adventure that will lead us into the next chapter of our lives. In mainstream films, this time is often romanticized. We’ve watched countless movies like Lady Bird, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower as the protagonists get swept up in the wonder of what’s next, and the familiar pain of what will be left behind. Rarely are Black faces at the center of these narratives.

With their rich and thoughtful romantic drama Premature, director Rashaad Ernesto Green and writer/star Zora Howard give us a Black love story set over the course of one summer. It is a narrative filled with lust, love, pain and the desperate hope of youth. Howard stars as Ayanna —a 17-year old Harlem native who spends those last hot New York summer days before college with her girlfriends at the park, and at various late night kickbacks. All set to attend an upstate New York college in the fall, the bold, no-nonsense writer finds herself enamored with Isaiah (Joshua Boone) —a slightly older New York transplant trying to carve out space for himself in the music industry.

From the moment we meet Ayanna on a stuffy subway car with her homegirls, she stands out. Brash and confident, she is as equally intuned with herself as she is with her clique. Quiet at first, she writes furiously in a notebook that never leaves her side. And yet, when prompted, she easily slips into the familiar camaraderie of her girls and their interactions with the young men of the city who are ceaseless with their advances.

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'Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am' Presents A Personal Perspective Of A Miraculous Life [Sundance Review]

If we do not tell our own stories, someone else will paint a picture of our lives and call it the truth. Prolific writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Toni Morrison has been writing her story and chronicling the lives of Black folk for nearly 50 years. Though her work is world renowned, her personal history and life’s journey has remained somewhat mysterious.

In director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders intimate documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, the audience is taken on a journey through the Beloved author’s life, from her humble beginnings in Lorain, Ohio, to her days as an editor at Random House and then as a lecturer at Princeton University. Using Morrison’s own recollections along with anecdotes from her childhood and earlier years, the author and Greenfield-Sanders construct a picture of a woman who single-handedly reshaped literature not just for Black folks, but for lovers of language and the written word across the globe.

Toni Morrison’s life did not begin with her birth in 1931. Instead, The Pieces I Am stretches backward —two generations before Morrison — to her grandfather, who would proudly boast to anyone listening that he’d read the Bible from cover to cover five times. Literacy has never been a given for members of the Black community which is why for Morrison — who learned to read at age three— books have always been somewhat of a miracle.

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Nikyatu Jusu On Her Evocative Black Vampire Film 'Suicide By Sunlight' [Sundance Interview]

Cinema has a long history of exploring supernatural themes like vampirism and witchcraft. Despite our centuries-long curiosity with the undead, there has been almost no examination of how African folklore and legends fit into these film narratives. With her hypnotic and astonishingly filmed short, Suicide By Sunlight, Sierra Leonean American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu turns the spotlight on a Black female vampire.

A pediatric nurse, Valentina (portrayed by Natalie Paul) is also a day-walking vampire who is protected from the sun by her melanin. Though she wants to make a difference at work, Valentina’s personal life is in disarray. Devastated by her estrangement from her twin daughters, Valentina struggles every single day to curb her bloodlust. Ahead of her two sold-out screenings at the Sundance Film Festival, Shadow and Act sat down to speak with Jusu about Suicide By Sunlight, how Octavia Butler invigorated her and why she made this film almost on accident.

"I stumbled across Octavia Butler’s work many years ago, and I discovered Fledgling," Jusu explained. "The story was really compelling, but I knew I needed to do more research about melanin because I love when genre melds scientific fact with fantasy. The idea of Black vampires walking in the sun is such a springboard for so many ideas, and I wanted to explore that."

Melanin and how it fits in with fantasy was something that the New York University’s Tisch Graduate Film school alum could not shake. "I was thinking about miscegenation, our history as Black people, and passing," she revealed. "All those layers are inherent in the concept of Black day-walking vampires. Then it was about researching the origin of vampires in our respective cultures. I was validated when I discovered that there were African vampires, grounded in Ghanaian culture. There are Haitian vampires called Loogaroos grounded in that culture. So melding all of that with the springboard of Octavia Butler—it's just so rich with so much story. The hook is day-walking Black vampires, but you still need the story."

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T.C. Carson Talks 'Last Call,' Telling REAL Black Stories and Those 'Living Single' Reboot Rumors

T.C. Carson stormed into our lives as the charismatic and debonair Kyle Barker on the hit ‘90s sitcom, Living Single. The series, which focused on six single carefree friends living and loving in Brooklyn, ushered in a slew of other TV shows including Friends, Girlfriends, and Moesha. Since leaving Living Single in 1998, Carson has voiced the character Mace Windu on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and he's appeared in countless films and TV shows. Now the Chicago native has returned to television full time in Bounce TV's new series, Last Call.

Called the Black Cheers —Last Call follows ex-NFL player, Darius Knight (Malik Whitfield) who is forced to rent out the backroom in his bar as a comedy club after running into some financial issues. On the series, Carson stars as Arthur Payne —a widower and retired veteran who loves spending his golden years trading barbs with all of Last Call’s regulars. Recently, Shadow and Act sat down with Carson to talk about the new series, if he’d ever do a Living Single reboot and why he’s nowhere near done telling Black stories on the screen and stage.

"Last Call is loosely based around that same idea as Cheers which is great,” Carson revealed. "But really what got me to the project was the director, Roger Bobb. He asked me to do it so I did it."

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Black at Sundance: 9 Survival Tips For First-Timers

For cinephiles, industry folks and aspiring industry folks, film festivals provide opportunities to network, rub shoulders with some of Hollywood's A-listers, and screen indie films before studios snap them up and distribute them in theaters.

The Sundance Film Festival is one of the biggest film festivals in North America, so if you’re going to visit just one fest each year, we suggest you make the trek to Park City, Utah to "dance in the Sun." Founded in 1985 by Robert Redford, the winter film fest gets bigger each year with screenings, panel discussions, events, and parties.

Navigating through Sundance can be an overwhelming experience —especially for first-timers. And considering that there are only 50,000 Black people in the whole state of Utah, it can be difficult to meet and connect with other Black creatives on the Mountain. Here are some Sundance tips to make your experience as productive and enjoyable as possible.

1) Join Sundance’s mailing list

If you’re not sure where to begin, we suggest joining Sundance’s mailing list. This way you can get alerts about dates, when to schedule your travel, book lodging and when tickets go on sale.

2) Get your lodging situated first

Sundance is EXPENSIVE. But the festival dates for the following year are announced almost as soon as the festival ends. If you plan on going, it’s wise to lock in your lodging as soon as possible. Though it’s possible (and more affordable) to stay in Salt Lake City, which is a 40-minute drive to Park City, getting as close to the festival and Park City’s Main Street is ideal.

If you stay in Salt Lake City, you're going to either have to rent a car or pay for transportation to get up to the mountain every day, so be sure to budget for transportation.

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