Blackbird | |
---|---|
Directed by | Patrik-Ian Polk |
Screenplay by | Rikki Beadle-Blair Patrik-Ian Polk |
Based on | Blackbird 1986 novel by Larry Duplechan |
Produced by | Keith Louis Brown Patrik-Ian Polk Carol Ann Shine Isaiah Washington Matthew Young |
Starring | Mo'Nique Isaiah Washington Julian Walker Kevin Allesee Gary LeRoi Gray Nikki Jane Torrey Laamar Terrell Tilford D. Woods |
Cinematography | Eun-ah Lee |
Edited by | Bryan Colvin |
Music by | Adam Samuel Goldman |
Production companies | KBiz Entertainment Tall Skinny Black Boy Productions |
Distributed by | RLJ Entertainment |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Blackbird is a 2014 drama film directed by Patrik-Ian Polk and starring Mo'Nique and Isaiah Washington. [1] The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Larry Duplechan and was released theatrically on April 24, 2015. [2]
Set in a small baptist community in the south of Mississippi, a 17-year-old high school senior and talented singer juggles with his sexuality and religion while also dealing with the disappearance of his younger sister as it tore his family apart.
Polk initially tried to get the film made several years earlier, with Jussie Smollett cast as the young lead, however financing fell through. [3] When the funding came through years later, he was forced to re-cast because of Smollett's busy schedule on Empire , and struggled to find a black male actor who would portray a gay love story on screen. [3] However, he later met Julian Walker, who is openly gay, and chose to cast him despite his lack of acting experience. [3]
Polk discussed, in an interview with BuzzFeed, the need for more stories featuring gay men who aren't white: [3]
Through my years of filmmaking, we have seen the gay coming-of-age story from every possible white male point of view ... We’ve seen it over, and over, and over.
The film had a successful run on the film festival circuit, winning awards at several LGBT-oriented festivals including Outflix Memphis, Atlanta’s Out On Film Festival, and the Crossroads Film Festival in Polk’s native Mississippi. [2] The film was the closing night gala screening for Los Angeles’ Pan African Film Festival (PAFF), where it won the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature Film. [2]
Blackbird received mixed to negative reviews from critics. As of August 2020 [update] , 40% of the ten reviews compiled on Rotten Tomatoes are positive, with an average rating of 4.6/10. [4] The Hollywood Reporter called it "too all over the map to take seriously". [5] The New York Times said that the film has an "impressive, palpable conviction", although it ultimately "suffers from soapy excesses and narrative disjunctures". [6] Slant Magazine wrote: "Blackbird is, like its main character, too naïve to understand or, at least, to deploy the reparative powers of camp". [7]
Monique Angela Hicks, known mononymously as Mo'Nique, is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Grammy Award.
Noah's Arc is an American cable television comedy-drama series that aired for two seasons on the Logo network from October 19, 2005 to October 4, 2006. The show centered on the lives of four African-American gay friends who share personal and professional experiences while living in Los Angeles.
Julian Richard Morley Sands was an English actor. His break-out role was as George Emerson in A Room with a View (1985), and he also appeared in The Killing Fields (1984), Gothic (1986), Warlock (1989), Arachnophobia (1990), Naked Lunch (1991), Boxing Helena (1993), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Mercy (2000),The Medallion (2003), Ocean's Thirteen (2007) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). On television, he portrayed Vladimir Bierko in 24 (2006), Jor-El in Smallville (2009–2010) and voiced Valmont in Jackie Chan Adventures (2000–2002).
Jurnee Diana Smollett is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress appearing on television sitcoms, including On Our Own (1994–1995) and Full House (1992–1994). She gained greater recognition with her role in the critically acclaimed Kasi Lemmons directed film Eve's Bayou (1997), which earned her a Critics' Choice Movie Award.
Jussie Smollett is an American actor and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1991 debuting in The Mighty Ducks (1992). From 2015 to 2019, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire.
Darryl Stephens is an American actor and author. He is best known for playing Noah Nicholson on the television dramedy Noah's Arc.
Patrik-Ian Polk is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Polk, who is gay, is noted for his films and theatre work that explore the experiences and stories of African-American LGBT people. In 2016, Polk was included in the Los Angeles Times Diverse 100 list, which described him as "the man bringing black gay stories to screens large and small".
Punks is a 2000 film produced by Babyface, directed by Patrik-Ian Polk, and starring Rockmond Dunbar, Seth Gilliam, Renoly Santiago, Jazzmun, and Dwight Ewell.
A Jihad for Love is a 2008 documentary film and was the world's first film on Islam and homosexuality. It took a total of six years to make and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007. It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008 as the opening documentary film for the Panorama section.
Lee Daniels is an American film and television producer, director and screenwriter. His first producer credit was Monster's Ball (2001), for which Halle Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress, making Daniels the first African-American film producer to solely produce an Oscar-winning film. He made his directorial debut with Shadowboxer in 2005 and has since then directed the films Precious (2009), The Paperboy, The Butler (2013) and The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021). Of these, Precious was the most critically acclaimed, and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including two nominations for Daniels, for Best Director and Best Picture. Other films he has produced include The Woodsman (2004), Tennessee (2008), Pimp (2018) and Concrete Cowboy (2020).
John R. Gordon is a British writer. His work – novels, plays, screenplays and biography - deals with the intersections of race, sexuality and class. With Rikki Beadle-Blair he founded and runs queer-of-colour-centric indie press Team Angelica. Although he was a "white person from a white suburb", according to Gordon, in the 1980s he became deeply interested in black cultural figures such as James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon, and they have influenced his work ever since.
Regular Lovers is a 2005 French coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Philippe Garrel and starring Louis Garrel and Clotilde Hesme. Set in 1968, it tells the story of a young couple. The film had its world premiere in the Competition section of the 62nd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2005. It was released in France on 26 October 2005.
The Skinny is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Patrik-Ian Polk, the creator of the Logo television series, Noah's Arc. It was released on April 6, 2012, in select theaters.
Stephen Plunkett is an American actor. He is best known for his performances in the NBC series, Rise, and John Magary's The Mend, which premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest Film Festival.
Larry Duplechan is an American novelist. He is best known for his novels Blackbird, adapted in 2014 by Patrik-Ian Polk as a film starring Mo'Nique and Isaiah Washington, and Got 'til It's Gone, which won an award in the Gay Romance category at the 21st Lambda Literary Awards.
Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman is a Canadian actor, model, and television personality. He is known for appearances in films and television, most notably as Jay in the Lifetime dark comedy-drama series Unreal (2015–2018) and as one of the main judges on the first season of Canada's Drag Race (2020).
Anna Boden and Ryan K. Fleck are an American filmmaking duo. They are best known for writing and directing Captain Marvel, which grossed over $1 billion and is one of the highest-grossing films of all time. They are also known for their collaborations on the films Half Nelson, Sugar, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Mississippi Grind.
John Seward Johnson III is an American filmmaker, philanthropist and entrepreneur. He is a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I and the son of artist John Seward Johnson II.
Eternity: The Movie is a 2014 LGBT music dramedy film directed by Ian Thorpe and screenplay by Thorpe, Joey Abi-Loutfi and Eric E. Staley. The film stars Barrett Crake, Myko Olivier, Eric Roberts, Martin Kove, Jon Gries and Nikki Leonti.