Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and screenwriter RaMell Ross and cinematographer Jomo Fray moderated by Carla Renata.
Elwood Curtis’ college dream shatters alongside a two-lane Florida highway. Bearing the brunt of an innocent misstep, he is sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South. He encounters another ward, the seen-it-all Turner. The two Black teens strike up an alliance with Turner dispensing fundamental tips for survival, while Elwood clings to his optimistic worldview. Set against the backdrop of the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, Elwood and Turner’s existence appear worlds away from Rev. Martin Luther King’s burnished oratory. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Elwood strives to hold onto his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner in this film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, directed by RaMell Ross.
