KINDRED THE FAMILY SOUL at WORLD CAFE LIVE 7/8
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 | Doors 8pm | Show 9pm | Downstairs Live
Philly’s husband-and-wife Soul duo return for an intimate and electrifying night perfect for lovers. Expect a tribute to MJ as well. Hire the babysitter and order the roses. This one’s going to be great!
Tickets:
Floor/Loge (Reserved Seating OR Standing Room): $25 ($20 ticket + $5 processing fee)
Mezzanine (Reserved Seating): $35 ($20 + $15 premium service*/processing fee)*priority seating and VIP amenities/service
Visit http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/eventcategory.asp?c=78
to pre-order tix and see more info on upcoming Soul concerts at World Cafe Live.
REELBLACK RECOMMENDS Q FEST 2009
The Philadelphia Q FEST Kicks off on Thursday 7/9.
Formerly the Festival of Gay and Lesbian Cinema.
Now in it’s 15th year, it will run July 9-20, 2009 in Center City at The Prince Music Theater, and in Old City at The Ritz East 1 and 2. They are offering $1 discounts to any or all of the 9 films below that will be of interest to Reelblack fans. Feel free to spread the word of these quality films making their Philadelphia debuts:
Friends and Lovers Ski Trip 2
Director: Maurice Jamal
USA 2008, 90 min
Thursday July 16, 9:15pm Ritz East 2
Friday July 17, 5:00pm Ritz East 1
Corey and Omar have just moved to Los Angeles from New York to join their friends. Little did they know what a bee’s nest they’re about to step into in this wildly funny soap opera from writer/director/star Maurice Jamal (Ski Trip, Dirty Laundry).
Bubbling over with energy, Maurice Jamal’s Friends & Lovers: Ski Trip 2 is a sexy, fun and fast-paced visit with a diverse group of gay men in Los Angeles. Presented in an episodic format, Jamal’s film is a multi-racial sequel to his first film, Ski Trip, picking the story up two years later. Corey (Maurice Jamal) is giving a reading of his new novel at an L.A. gay bookstore. At the reading, a man asks about Corey about his relationship, and where it is now, setting off memories that take us back six months. Corey and his partner Omar (John Rankin) have just moved from New York to L.A.; they’re a committed couple thinking about marriage, but, who knows? The couple’s friends lead soap opera-worthy lives. There’s drama queen actor (Daren Fleming); the over-sexed lesbian Nikki (Cassandra Cruz); Steamy “straight” NBA player Montell (Terrell Carter) and his over-the-top materialistic girlfriend Lisa (Saaphyri Windsor); Jayson (Benjamin Patterson) with his body of steel and heart of gold; and we can’t forget the mantrap, next door neighbor Gabriel (Lucky Connor). Put all these outrageous characters in the queer stewpot of West Hollywood and it’s bound to boil over! - Scott Cranin
Director: Maurice Jamal will attend both screenings of the film
Misconceptions
Director: Ron Satlof
USA 2008, 95 min
Saturday July 18, 7:15pm Prince Music Theater
Sunday July 19, 9:15pm Prince Music Theater
This hilarious look at the culture war’s opposing factions follows a conservative, religious married woman who impulsively decides to be a surrogate mother. She “forgets” to tell her born again husband that the couple is both interracial and gay.
Misconceptions pokes fun at the ongoing battle between LGBT people and religious conservatives. Wrapping a conciliatory message in comedy, writer Ira Pearlstein and director Ron Satloff convincingly show that there are many people on each side of the issue who mean well. Miranda Bliss (A.J. Cook) receives a message from God instructing her to carry a child for two gay men. Parker (David Sutcliffe), Miranda’s husband, is oblivious to the fact that his wife is having morning sickness, maybe because he is too busy attending anti-gay-marriage rallies, or maybe because the two have been sleeping in separate beds for the last five years. Terry (Orlando Jones), the more flamboyant of the gay couple, comes to visit Miranda in her small southern town. Parker thinks Terry is interviewing for a job with his wife’s Christian catering business…but then why is Terry trying to buy Miranda a new mattress? When it becomes clear that the dancer/choreographer (who didn’t forget his sewing machine and bolts of chiffon!) wants to micro-manage the pregnancy and has no intention of leaving, the craziness begins. While this comical film pokes fun at the Religious Right, it also raises some serious issues about marriage, adoption and the art of baking pies! - Dudley Best
Rivers Wash Over Me
Director: John G. Young
USA 2009, 89 min
Monday July 13, 7:15pm Ritz East 1
Saturday July 18, 12:15pm Prince Music Theater
A sophisticated gay black teen confronts ignorance, danger and eventually true love in this tense, probing drama set in the rural South.
Fifteen-year-old Sequan Green is a lanky, erudite and very much gay New Yorker. Forced to move in with extended family members in the rural South, this fish out of water finds his new surroundings downright poisonous. The town is corrupt and complacent, riddled with crime, drugs, homophobia, a macho thug culture and a willfully ignorant populace. His older cousin Michael, with whom he shares a room, makes a daily habit of degrading and violently abusing Sequan, while his aunt turns a blind (if not jaundiced) eye. Enter Lori, a white bad girl who hangs with local drug dealers and her kind, protective brother…who happens to have something in common with Sequan. Director John G. Young wowed us with his examination of race, class, pop culture and queer love literally under fire in 1995’s Parallel Sons. Rivers heralds a return to similar territory, weaving in a crime mystery and a lone, frustrated moral authority figure for good measure. This is daring, raw and deep work of narrative storytelling art. - Lawrence Ferber
Rivers Wash Over Me (7:15pm, Ritz East ) John G. Young, Director/Screenwriter will attend
_________________________________________________________________
Dreams Deferred the Sakia Gunn Story (plays with Amancio: Two Faces on a Tombstone)
Director: Charles B. Brack
USA 2008, 58 min
Sunday July 12, 7:00pm Ritz East 2
Sakia, an African-American 15-year-old high school student who choose to be openly and unapologetically lesbian, fell victim to a hate crime committed by a black man twice her age. While waiting for the bus, Sakia and her friends were approached lewdly by two men. The girls rebuffed their sexual advances, words were exchanged and the girls were attacked by the armed men. Sakia Gunn was murdered on the streets of Newark for her sexuality. Unlike the Matthew Shepard story, few people outside of Newark have heard of this murder. There are no made-for-cable films about Sakia, no speeches at big fundraising dinners. The difference may be as simple as the color of Sakia’s skin. Dreams Deferred explores not only her murder but also how the media and public respond with horror when a pretty white gay boy has been murdered, but silent when an African-American lesbian is killed. Through court testimony and interviews with Sakia’s family and friends, the film highlights oft-unaddressed issues regarding gender identity, homophobia and racism. - Dudley Best
A Litany For Survival: the Life and Work of Audre Lorde
Director: Ada Gay Griffin, Michelle Parkerson
USA 1995, 90 min
Saturday July 11, 2:15pm Ritz East 2
A powerful profile of African American poet Audre Lorde, a fiercely passionate American visionary who became a role model not only for Black women but for everyone who believes, as she did, that “liberation is not the private province of any one particular group.”
First exhibited at our inaugural event in 1995, A Litany for Survival: The Life and Works of Audre Lorde is an epic and intimate look into the life and works of award-winning Black, Lesbian, Feminist, Mother, Warrior, and Poet Audre Lorde. Her writings, spanning five decades, articulate some of the most important social and political visions of this century. Through arcival footage and interviews with Audre Lorde, her family and notable writers including Sonia Sanchez, Adrienne Rich, Barbara Smith amd Essex Hemphill, this provacative documentary traces Lorde’s life from her childhood roots in Harlem to a National Book Award nomination for her poetry, to her battle against breast cancer, to her being named the New York State Poet Laureate. Though seventeen years have passed since Audre Lorde’s death, A Litany for Survival: The Life and Works of Audre Lorde is an inspirational testimony and powerful portrait of a remarkable woman who continues to inspire a whole new generation of women today. - Noelle Reilly
Training Rules
Director: Diane Mosbacher, Fawn Yacker
USA 2008, 58 min
Sunday July 19 9:00pm Ritz East 2
African-American Jennifer Harris spent her life training to become a champion basketball player, but her name will forever be synonymous with her fight to challenge the discriminatory practices of a powerful coach.
Broomall, Pennsylvania native Rene Portland’s list of accomplishments is long: she was a star player with the Mighty Macs of Immaculata Collage (with three national championships and a second place finish in her four years there); twice voted “Coach of the Year” by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA); and head coach of Penn State’s women’s basketball team, the Lady Lions, for 27 of her 31 years as a college basketball head coach. She’s a fierce competitor and a proven winner on the court, and part of that success may have been her strictly enforced policies of no drinking, no drugs and no lesbians. Star high school player Jennifer Harris entered Penn State and became a starting member of the team only to find herself inexplicably removed two years later. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Dee Mosbacher (Radical Harmonies, No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon) examines Portland’s coaching environment and the impact that the controversial case Harris v Portland and Penn State had on Harris and her parents Pearl and Lambert Harris (under the terms of settlement, their daughter is forbidden to discuss the case), as well as six other women who have suffered emotional scars, the loss of scholarships and the end of promising basketball careers when their sexual orientation was discovered. - Carol Coombes
Preceded by:
Lady Trojans
Director Elizabeth Hesik
USA, 2008, 58 min
Who knew that Tucson, Arizona was a hotbed for scholastic lesbians in the early ’90s? Focused on the Catalina Lady Trojans, this incredibly endearing piece follows a group of young athletes who scored points for the home team while zealously exploring their sexuality off the court. While the players formed a secret dyke society, the camaraderie of competitive sports came crashing up against the bliss and jealously of young romance. At the center of it all was cute and perky Anna Hesik who, along with her half-sister Elizabeth (the film’s director), captured everything from basketball games to slumber parties. As Anna blossomed, she fell passionately in love with Quinn — a senior and the team’s “mac daddy.” It is fascinating to see how differently they reflect on their teenage years. Eventually turning her lens on each member of the Lady Trojans, Hesik skillfully intertwines often funny video footage, entertaining animation and intriguing interviews that accurately recall the intensity of youthful experimentation among friends against the backdrop of the basketball court.- Kelly Burkhardt
“Family”
Director Faith Trimel
USA 2008, 109 min
Wednesday July 15, 5:00pm Ritz East 2
Sunday July 19, 6:45pm Ritz East 2
This tumultuous and frequently humorous journey follows a group of incredibly strong African-American women who make a pact to come out of the closet — within 30 days!
Maverick writer/director Faith Trimel wowed us with her debut film Black Aura on an Angel (PIGLFF ’04), a story of mental illness in the African-American lesbian community. She is back full throttle with her latest audaciously inspirational narrative “Family” which skillfully delves into the personal, closeted lives of Women of Color. Actress Felicia is in the middle of passionate sex with her girlfriend when her mother comes knocking. She quickly shoves her lover in the closet—naked—but that’s just the beginning of Felicia’s problems. Tonya and Shelly just got engaged, but when Tonya’s overbearing sister shows up unexpectedly and needs a place to stay, Shelly is booted to the guest bedroom. Hotshot WMBA star Kemp is juggling her stripper girlfriend and hiding her dyke life so it doesn’t affect future lucrative endorsement deals. As scary as it is, these six close friends decide to come out within 30 days, yeilding results that are as turbulent as they are amusing. Trimel’s well-crafted film intricately entwines essential issues in the LGBT African-American community like religion, class and coming out, articulately putting a stamp on what it means to be “family”. — Kelly Burkhardt
Director Faith Trimel will attend the July 19th screening with a Q&A following the screening
________________________________________________________________________
Drool
Director: Nancy Kissam
USA 2009, 88 min
Friday July 10, 7:00pm Ritz East 2
Sunday July 12, 12:00noon Ritz East 1
In this hilariously dark romantic comedy, a family overcomes its prejudices and insecurities with the aid of a friendly neighbor and some great beauty products.
Anora Fleese (gorgeous Laura Harring of Mulholland Drive) has a crappy existence. Beaten into submission by her abusive husband Cheb and treated like a doormat by her teenage siblings Tabby and Little Pete, it’s no surprise that Anora’s smile has disappeared — but at least she finds light relief in her vivid “fantasy man” dreams. When Imogene Cochran (Girlfriends star Jill Marie Jones) — a sassy “Kathy K” saleswoman peddling products for “the cocoa-skinned woman” in a community that isn’t too keen on cocoa-skinned anything — moves in next door, Anora’s life begins to change. Hooting and hollering over caffeine, painting toenails and sampling hand cream, Imogene and Anora grow close —real close. And that’s when all hell breaks loose. Before you can bat a Ms. Mascara eyelash, Imogene, Anora, Tabby and Little Pete are all piled into Imogene’s purple car on a mission to get to Savannah, before the ice melts on the body in the trunk. Marvelously marrying the difficult subjects of racism, spousal abuse and sexism with fantasy, the film is whimsical and has a great sense of timing. In this writer’s opinion, Drool is quite possibly the funniest lesbian film in our lineup. - Carol Coombes
Off and Running
Director: Nicole Opper
USA, 2009, 75min
Sunday July 19, 12:00noon Ritz East 1
Exploring family bonds and the lengths to which people must go to find themselves, Off and Running is a fresh and poignant documentary about a young woman’s search to define herself.
Avery, Ravi and their younger brother Zay-Zay live in a loving Brooklyn home. Adopted by their Jewish lesbian moms, Travis and Tova, the three children don’t bear any resemblance to one another. Avery is a gifted runner with a multitude of awards filling her bedroom. She is now old enough to be curious about her African-American biological roots and, with her parents’ encouragement, reaches out to her birth mother for the first time . Emboldened by the exchange and the opportunity to discover her own racial and cultural identity, Avery is nonetheless unprepared for the sweeping emotional journey she’s embarked upon. Distracted and feeling out of place at home, she begins to distance herself from her path to college and the two women she’s always called her parents. Documenting the highs and lows of this remarkable family is Nicole Opper’s ever-present but unobtrusive camera. As Opper herself says, “I knew that in a time when people were voting to ban gay marriage and gay adoption, we needed this story more than ever.” — Carol Coombes
Director: Nicole Opper will attend the screening
MJ - R.I.P.
Thank You.
Walking With Dinosaurs
 |
|||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||
 |
|||||||
Dinner And A Movie 6/19 - THIS THING CALLED LOVE
Reelblack’s Soul Food Cinema returns on Friday June 19 at 7pm with the Philadelphia Premiere of THIS THING CALLED LOVE (2007). Written, Directed and Starring Eden Marryshow, this Brooklyn-based romantic comedy.
When a broken hearted teacher, Fred Hansen (Eden Marryshow), meet his student’s aunt, Erica Clark (Sara Pickett), their lives are in recent upheaval. Erica is dealing with her new full time job as mom to her niece Lora (Melinda Myrie). Fred is struggling to discover who he is after a break up with his overbearing fiancé who forces him to question what he really wants out of life. Their overwhelming commonalities and a little prodding from Lora allow the pair to engage in an instant and wonderful romance. Troubles arise, however, when Fred’s ex- fiancé re-enters the picture. Fred is forced to make a choice between the two but does he know what that thing called love truly is? Producer Sean Clark in attendance.
When: Friday June 19 at 7pm
Where: The Point of Destination Cafe, 6460 Greene Street Philadelphia, PA 19119
Cost: Admission is free with the purchase of a Soul Food Friday Meal ($10 and up.)
This Thing Called Love trailer
Opening This Weekend
|
Opening This Weekend
Imagine That - Eddie Murphy returns to form as a divorced dad who learns to bond with his daughter (and her imaginary friends) through the magical powers of her lucky blanket. A lot better than you’d expect. A fun movie for kids and a lot more bearable than Meet Dave and Norbit. Worth a Look. |
Mariah Carey DVD Contest
In celebration of the theatrical release of TENNESSEE, Leed Daniels’ latest production, starring Mariah Carey, Reelblack is giving one luckey surfer the chance to win a brand new copy of her deluxe edition live DVD, THE ADVENTURES OF MIMI, courtesy of Image Entertainment.
| One lucky winner will be chosen on or about June 30.
To enter, simply send an email with your FULL NAME in the body of the message and the Phrase MARIAH CAREY CONTEST in the subject line tocontests@ reelblack.com Please only send one email. Multiple entries will be discarded. |
YOU CAN WIN ONE OF THESE COOL DVDS
Reelblack, Philadelphia’s #1 Promoter of African-American Film is giving away copies of some of the hottest DVDs around. To put your name in the hat, simply send an email with your FULL NAME in the body of the message and the Phrase DVD CONTEST on the subject line to contests@reelblack.com
Winners will be chosen at random and contacted on or about June 25. Good Luck!
SOUL POWER TRAILER
From the Academy Award winning makers of the Muhammad Ali doc, WHEN WE WERE KINGS comes SOUL POWER, the long awaited concert film filmed in 1974, Zaire. In NYC and LA in July. Hopefully it will make its way to Philly.
CHRIS ROCK’S LATEST FILM IS SET FOR FALL RELEASE
ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS AND LIDDELL ENTERTAINMENT SET TO ROCK
ACQUIRING CHRIS ROCK’S AND HBO FILMS GOOD HAIR
Chris Rock’s crowd-pleasing look into the subject of African-American hair culture to hit theatres this fall
LOS ANGELES (May 15, 2009) – Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment have acquired worldwide rights to Chris Rock’s GOOD HAIR, a hilariously insightful and entertaining, yet remarkably serious, look at the African American hair culture, produced by HBO Films. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary. The deal was announced jointly by Howard Cohen, Co-President of Roadside Attractions, Mickey Liddell of Liddell Entertainment and Michael Lombardo, President, Programming Group and West Coast Operations, HBO. Roadside plans to release the film domestically this fall. Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) will handle home video and other domestic ancillary rights and HBO will retain pay cable rights and will broadcast the film in their traditional pay TV window.
An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, GOOD HAIR visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of black people. Director Jeff Stilson follows Chris Rock on this raucous adventure after Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” Celebrities such as Ice-T, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Maya Angelou, and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter’s question.
“I’m very happy to be working with the good people at Roadside Attractions. I loved the job they did with SUPER SIZE ME and hope we can have similar success.” says Chris Rock.
“Chris has been part of the HBO family for more than 15 years. We were thrilled to support his vision in making GOOD HAIR and we hope it reaches the widest audience,” says Michael Lombardo, President, Programming Group and West Coast Operations, HBO.
“Chris Rock has always been able to come at everyday topics from a completely fresh perspective. His ability to mix incisive social commentary with huge laughs, I believe, makes him this generation’s answer to Mark Twain,” adds Howard Cohen, Co-President, Roadside Attractions. “GOOD HAIR is revelatory, provocative, thoroughly-researched and, most importantly, just funny as hell.”
The film was represented by ICM and the deal negotiated by ICM, Michael Lombardo, President, Programming and West Coast Operations, and Glenn Whitehead, Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs on behalf of HBO, Howard Cohen on behalf of Roadside Attractions and Robb Klein of Sheppard Mullin on behalf of Liddell Entertainment. GOOD HAIR is an HBO Films presentation of a Zahrlo production, an Urban Romances production. Produced by Chris Rock, Nelson George, Kevin O’Donnell and Jenny Hunter. Directed by Jeff Stilson. Written by Chris Rock, Jeff Stilson, Lance Crouther, and Chuck Sklar.