Lackawanna Blues | |
---|---|
Based on | Lackawanna Blues by Ruben Santiago-Hudson |
Screenplay by | Ruben Santiago-Hudson |
Directed by | George C. Wolfe |
Starring | S. Epatha Merkerson Marcus Carl Franklin Mos Def Carmen Ejogo Louis Gossett Jr. Macy Gray Terrence Howard Delroy Lindo Rosie Perez Liev Schrieber Ruben Santiago-Hudson Jimmy Smits Jeffrey Wright |
Composer | Meshell Ndegeocello |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Halle Berry Vincent Cirrincione Ruben Santiago-Hudson Shelby Stone |
Producer | Nellie Nugiel |
Cinematography | Ivan Strasburg |
Editor | Brian A. Kates |
Running time | 95 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | HBO |
Release | February 12, 2005 |
Lackawanna Blues is a drama television film directed by George C. Wolfe and written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. It aired on HBO on February 12, 2005. It is based on the play of the same name by Santiago-Hudson. Wolfe had commissioned the stage version. [1]
For her work in the movie, S. Epatha Merkerson won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2006.
Lackawanna Blues is the true story of Ruben Santiago Jr. growing up in Lackawanna, New York. He was raised by his father and mother and the neighborhood boarding house lady known as Rachel "Nanny" Crosby. Ruben was born in 1956 to his Puerto Rican father Ruben Santiago and his African-American mother Alean Hudson. His mother was too mentally unstable to take good care of him; residing in mental hospitals, Alean disappears and reappears throughout Ruben's life. His father stayed at Nanny's boarding house, but he was frequently not around due to working long hours or out looking for work. Nanny more or less took care of Ruben Jr. as a mother figure. The television movie depicts his life growing up there and the diverse characters that he meets during his and their stays at the boarding house.
The blind Detroit street singer Robert Bradley from the band Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise appears in the film. He performs on-screen and has three songs featured on the soundtrack (including a duet with Macy Gray).
S. Epatha Merkerson is an American actress. She has received accolades for her work, including an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, four NAACP Image Awards, two Obie Awards, and two Tony Award nominations. She is known for her portrayal of NYPD Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on the NBC police procedural drama series Law & Order, a role she played from 1993 to 2010, appearing in 388 episodes of the series. She is also known for playing Reba the Mail Lady on Pee-wee's Playhouse and Sharon Goodwin in the NBC medical drama Chicago Med since the series premiered in November 2015
Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise (RBBS) was an American band from Detroit, Michigan. The group was a collaboration between Robert Bradley and three other rock musicians.
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Lackawanna Blues is an American play written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson that premiered in 2001. It was later adapted as a television movie that aired in 2005. The play dramatizes the character of the author's primary caregiver when he was growing up in Lackawanna, New York, during the 1950s and 1960s.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 2009 to 2011 on ABC's Castle. In November 2011, he appeared on Broadway in Lydia R. Diamond's play Stick Fly. In 2013, he starred in the TV series Low Winter Sun, a police drama set in Detroit.
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