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 |
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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.
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".
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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.
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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).
This Changes Everything is a 2018 American documentary film, directed by Tom Donahue. An examination of sexism in the Hollywood film industry, the film interviews a variety of actresses and women filmmakers on their experiences in the industry.
Front Cover is a 2015 American drama romance film written and directed by Ray Yeung. The story follows Ryan Fu, a gay Chinese American fashion stylist, who rejects his ethnic heritage, who is assigned to style Ning, an ostensibly heterosexual patriotic actor from Beijing. Front Cover received mostly positive critical reception and received awards from festivals such as San Diego Outfest, Boston Asian American Film Festival, and Outflix Film Festival.