Bright, friendly and bubbling with hormones, Ellison is a typical Harlem teenager. He gets into good-natured mischief with his pals, stealing dogs and sneaking into amusement parks, and has a playful sexual tug-of- war with his girlfriend Tande. But when his father dies of a sudden heart attack, Ellison is evicted from their apartment and forced to grow up far too soon. Without relatives, he quickly runs out of friends’ houses to stay in and finds himself homeless and desperate. He declines a job with local drug dealer and longtime acquaintance Zee, but after being refused by the Army (asthma) and victimized in a homeless shelter, Ellison is out of options. As Zee’s personal assistant, he’s entrusted with harmless tasks which slowly give way to dangerous assignments that leave him desperate for a way out. Ferenc Toth’s astounding debut won Best Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Languages Archives: English
The Visitor
Walter, s widower college professor, travels to New York City to speak at an academic conference and discovers a swindler has rented his apartment to a young, illegal immigrant couple. The two nearly leave but Walter convinces them to stay, and a friendship develops between the trio as they learn to get by together.
War Dance
Since 1985, the children of the Acholi tribe in northern Uganda have been victimized both by civil war and by a rebel force, the Lord’s Resistance Army. Millions have been displaced into camps where life is harsh. But when one camp’s primary school won the right to compete in Uganda’s national music and dance festival, its children dared to dream again. Nominated for an Academy Award, WAR DANCE follows three of these children – Dominic, Rose and Nancy – as they faced their past and imagined their future.
Wattstax
Experience the history and the soul of the African-American community in Watts,
Los Angeles, 1972. Wattstax documents the gathering of over 100,000 at the Los
Angeles Coliseum, hosted by a very young Jesse Jackson, for the 7th
anniversary of the Watts riots. The music of The Stylistics, The Staples Singers,
Rufus and Carla Thomas, Bar-Kays, and the legendary Isaac Hayes held the
forefront of the spirit so vigorously displayed here. Interviews with the residents
of Watts combined with astounding, sublime monologues by comedian Richard
Pryor create an invocation-we are delivered from place and time to become in
tune with this politically loaded era and the flame of the soul performing and
reflecting it.
We Are The Radical Monarchs
Set in Oakland, a city with a deep history of social justice movements, We Are The Radical Monarchs documents the Radical Monarchs – a California-based alternative to the Scout movement for girls of color, aged 8-13. It’s members earn badges for completing units on social justice including being an LGBTQ ally, the environment, and disability justice. The group was started by two, fierce, queer women of color, Anayvette Martinez and Marilyn Hollinquest as a way to address and center her daughter’s experience as a young brown girl. Their work is anchored in the belief that adolescent girls of color need dedicated spaces and that the foundation for this innovative work must also be rooted in fierce inter-dependent sisterhood, self-love, and hope.
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