Now celebrating its 28th year, the American Black Film Festival remains the preeminent event of its kind, empowering Black artists and spotlighting a diverse array of entertainment content created by and for individuals of African descent. An event like no other, the festival brings together enthusiasts of Black culture alongside industry executives and content creators from across the globe for five days filled with screenings, engaging talk events, exclusive parties, and invaluable networking opportunities.
Join us live in sunny South Beach from June 12-16 for an unforgettable experience, followed by our online segment streaming on ABFF PLAY from June 17-24.
ABFF SINCE 1997
Our Legacy
The ABFF has earned global acclaim for its profound impact on the entertainment industry. Over the span of nearly three decades, the festival has served as a vital platform for Black artists, offering them pathways to success within Hollywood and beyond.
Through an array of talent showcases ad pipelines programs, the ABFF has provided unparalleled support to countless actors, writers, and directors, guiding their careers and introducing them to the broader industry landscape, often when they were still relatively unknown. As a result, the festival stands as a beacon of opportunity, empowering diverse voices and reshaping the narrative of representation in film and television.
The Sundance Film Festival returns January 19 through 29 with a slate of independent features from filmmakers worldwide. The 2023 festival features selections picked from a record-breaking 4,061 submissions. The chosen few include documentaries and dramas from Black creators, examining figures, stories, and slices of life that speak to the unique experiences of members of the Black diaspora. The films will be on view in person in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort starting on Jan 19, with a selection of films available online across the country from January 24 through the 29th.
From documentaries about legendary culture definers like Little Richard, and Nikki Giovanni, to dramas centering on generational trauma and healing, immigrant experiences, and twists of supernatural horror, the robust offerings from Black directors, producers, and stars are sure to shape the box office and awards noms of 2023.
Take a look at a few of the selections from Black creators highlighted at the festival below:
Young. Wild. Free. Starring Algee Smith, Sanaa Lathan, Sierra Capri, and Mike Epps, this one finds High school senior Brandon drowning in responsibilities when his world is turned upside down…after being robbed at gunpoint by the girl of his dreams.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
From director and screenwriter Raven Jackson and produced by Barry Jenkins, this decades-spanning exploration of a woman’s life in Mississippi is an ode to the generations of people, places, and ineffable moments that shape us. Starring Moses Ingram.
Little Richard: I Am Everything This documentary celebrates the life and legacy of Little Richard, revealing the Black queer origins of rock ’n’ roll and finally exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music. Through archival and performance footage, the revolutionary icon’s life unfurls onscreen – including all of its switchbacks and contradictions.
Talk To Me This supernatural thriller sees a group of friends discovering how to conjure spirits using an ancient embalmed hand. With the power to communicate with the other side in their grasp, they become hooked on the new thrill…until one of them goes too far and opens the door to the spirit world
The script focuses on the physical and spiritual brutality endured by Smith’s real-life character without addressing the man’s actual humanity
If there’s anything unexpected about the depiction of slavery in director Antoine Fuqua’s “Emancipation,” it’s the unflinchingly grim imagery that populates its frames. The intent seems to derive from the photographs of the real-life subject who inspired the film: Gordon, or “Whipped Peter,” an escaped slave whose viciously scarred back was immortalized as a way to show the world the unspeakable horrors Black people faced in the United States.
For their part, Fuqua and screenwriter Bill Collage (“Assassin’s Creed”) feature severed heads, burning corpses and hanged men, among other hard-to-stomach acts of brutality, as well as casualties of combat, made only slightly less bluntly shocking by the phantasmagoric quality of the extreme desaturation of colors on screen. But for as much sense as the correlation between the aesthetic choices and the themes make, the visual statements on such dehumanization overpower most other narrative elements.
Separated from his wife Dodienne (Charmaine Bingwa, “The Good Fight”) and his children to build a railroad for the Confederate Army, Peter waits for an opportunity to run away. “I will come back to you,” he tells his family not only in hopes of comforting them but also with the conviction of a promise he intends to keep. Soon, he and three other Black men capitalize on a moment of chaos to scurry into the swamps and travel to meet the Union soldiers in Baton Rouge.
Not only must Peter and his comrades hide from the human monsters that chase them relentlessly, but they must also fight the savagery of nature. Alligators, snakes, and even bees turn an already treacherous ordeal into a never-ending nightmare for these desperate men.
In what is likely one of his most physical demanding parts to date, Smith sweats and groans through an astoundingly visceral performance marked by exhaustion and pain. He repeatedly convinces us that such remarkable vigorousness comes from a spiritual fortitude that allows the character to go on even when his body wishes to surrender.
A role with limited dialogue, where the few lines spoken require a Haitian Creole accent, pushes Smith to convey the rage consuming Peter with a proud yet stoic expression. While eventually one catches on to the fact that the Oscar-winning actor’s turn doesn’t permit much modulation or for him to exhibit much range, he plays the role proficiently.
On his trail is Jim Fassel (Ben Foster), a typically malevolent racist raised with a poisoned white-supremacist mindset. A campfire story he tells about his father’s murderous ways is the extent of our engagement with him. Not that Collage or Fuqua needed to spend much time humanizing the villain, but despite Foster’s intensity, Jim remains a familiar caricature.
Beyond the desaturation, which at times tricks the eye into believing the picture exists in black-and-white or sepia tones, veteran cinematographer Robert Richardson mines the locations for their dangerously mystifying beauty. There’s a coarse elegance to how the mud, the murky water and the vegetation register through this nearly monochromatic palette, which call to mind “Vazante,” the Brazilian film on slavery by Daniela Thomas.
Near the end of Peter’s ongoing odyssey, as he encounters a different type of forced labor in the seemingly dignified duty of becoming a soldier, several war sequences let Fuqua flaunt his directorial abilities while Richardson focuses on fallen fighters and their wounds.
Yet what dampens the impact of “Emancipation” is the lack of an inner world for the hero outside of the survival mode that defines his great feat. No anecdotes of life in Haiti are told; no memories of his parents recalled; no tender recollections of how he became enamored with Dodienne are shared. In an effort to sear in our consciousness the heinous crimes perpetrated against Black individuals, the writer makes no room for Peter to fully exist.
One could blame the burden of accurately honoring reality for this. But since it’s likely that Collage took creative liberties in plenty of other aspects, considering the limited information available on Gordon’s life before and after the war, one has to wonder why he didn’t enrich Peter’s backstory. After all, fiction gives storytellers access to invent new entryways into history. Instead, Fuqua’s latest zeroes in on the suffering and unfolds as a series of gruesome trials that results in a simplistically satisfying, fictional ending.
As stark corroboration that this country was built on hatred and death, “Emancipation” successfully rattles you, but it can hardly be described as revelatory. Still, some could argue that today, as segments of society willfully wish to ignore the past and to prevent new generations from learning about it, a ruthlessly straightforward reminder is needed. For interested audiences watching the film on Apple TV+, enduring it might prove an uphill task. “Emancipation” opens in US theaters Dec. 2 and premieres on Apple TV+ Dec. 9.
The historical drama maps the grueling journey that Peter (Will Smith), a slave in Louisiana, undergoes to reach a semblance of liberty in 1863, the year that Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Unlike Solomon Northup in “12 Years a Slave,” Peter has never known freedom. Born a slave in Haiti, his only respite from the abominable treatment lies in his unwavering faith in the Christian God.
The director touches on the actress’ possible return and his passion for telling Black stories through the upcoming limited series.
The Best Man: Final Chapters is finally making a return to the small screen. Its first official teaser is out, and the beloved Black cinema franchise will premiere this winter. Malcolm D. Lee has returned to the director’s chair alongside the film’s original cast of the inaugural 1999 film. Actors Morris Chestnut, Melissa De Sousa, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, and Harold Perrineau will all reprise their roles, except Monica Calhoun — whose character, Mia Morgan, died of cancer in The Best Man‘s 2013 sequel.
“We all love Monica Calhoun,” Lee exclusively told VIBE during a private screening of episode one. “But when we were getting set to make this, it was like, ‘Well, that’s how it has to be.’ She may make an appearance in the Final Chapters. We’ll see. But we all love Monica. I loved working with her. She’s a great actress and really was the key to getting people emotional aboutBest Man Holiday.“
Back in 2014, it was announced that a third installment of the movie franchise would be hitting theaters. The Best Man Wedding was set to arrive in 2016, but due to scheduling conflicts around Lee’s other film projects, it never made its way into production.
“I think it’s twofold,” Lee said. “It’s both artistic and about commerce because we couldn’t get a movie together with the budget that we really needed, and it was hard to get everybody’s schedules. And so what the series allows us to do is just to allow them to chew more scenery and tell us some unfinished stories. So those are the main things that I think are really good about making it more than just a two-hour movie.” The Best Man: Final Chapters will follow the evolved cast as they experience new relationship challenges, reoccurring grievances, and life-changing decisions. Lee serves as the creator, executive producer, and co-showrunner alongside Dayna Lynn North.
North served as executive producer and writer for the HBO hit series Insecure. Now, she and Lee have teamed up in their passion for telling Black stories through a series birthed from an iconic Black movie.
“It’s always difficult to create any story,” Lee added in regard to making Black films and television programming in 2022. “There’s an extra microscope on us for sure. But I don’t feel like there’s a dearth of content out there. There’s a lot… if anything, and I think it’s all the different kinds of genres, too — whether it’s dramatics, melodramatic, comedy, horror, or historical drama. I think there’s a lot that is being done. So I don’t feel like we’re lacking right now.”
All eight episodes of The Best Man: The Final Chapters are set to premiere on Dec. 22 via the Peacock streaming app. Watch the limited series’ latest sneak peek below.
Written by Lee, the new limited series will tell “unfinished stories” of the original characters. Its eight episodes will also introduce a slew of new roles played by Nicole Ari Parker, Ron Canada, Brandon Victor Dixon, Michael Genet, Yvonna Pearson, Aaron Serotsky, Terrence Terrell, Tobias Truvillion, and Eric Scott Ways.
Elegance Bratton is an expert in fiction. Throughout his career in the U.S. Marine Corps, he learned how to pretend to be things he wasn’t. It was how he survived as a Black gay man during the era of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
It comes as no surprise, then, that Bratton has carved out a post-military career in filmmaking. His directorial debut, “The Inspection,” is a fictionalized retelling of his own experience as a young, gay Black man who, after being shunned by his own mother for coming out, decides to join the Marine Corps.
“I was kicked out of the house at 16 for being gay, and I spent the next 10 years homeless,” he told Military Times. “I really thought that I was completely worthless, but fortunately, a drill instructor told me that your life is important, and you are important, and you matter.”
The Marine Corps, despite not accepting openly LGBTQIA+ service members until 2010, when Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, provided Bratton with a family, he said, one that he supported and that cared for him in return, even though he was unable to discuss his sexuality.
“You have a responsibility to protect the Marine to your left to your right,” Bratton said. “That notion was transformative for me, because I had never had that kind of trust from someone before. And to be honest, it was enough. That’s what I needed to hear to kind of turn my life around.”
“The Inspection” is an emotionally grounding movie that looks at a time in U.S. military history when not all of its members were able to fully embrace a sense of self. Despite that codified intolerance, Bratton notes, he and his fellow Marines were able to learn to accept and embrace the different ways of life they all led.
“I think we’re at a time, politically, where the left and the right are screaming at each other from our differences, rather than actually listening to each other,” Bratton said. “The Marine Corps is where I learned how to not only listen to people who are very, very different from me, but how to form meaningful human connections with them. This dysfunctional family helped me to love myself more, even as they asked me to repress myself.”
And even though he did hide parts of himself, Bratton said the Corps was instrumental in helping him develop an identity.
“I was finally able to take a moment and completely contemplate who I am, which aspects of my personality were too risky for me to reveal and which aspects of my personality were actually the things that anybody could bond with me over.”
Although “The Inspection” is a fictionalized account of his personal experience, Bratton views it as very much nonfiction by way of its depiction of the emotions, introspections, and experiences.
Ahead of its theatrical release, Bratton compared his film to the 1976 Sylvester Stallone classic, “Rocky.” Both films feature flawed, down-on-their-luck protagonists who emerge as unlikely heroes, finally garnering respect from not only their peers, but themselves as well.
“This movie is for anyone who’s ever felt disregarded,” Brattan said. “Ultimately, it’s Black, gay Rocky.”
LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Films is joining forces with Nipsey Hussle’s Marathon Films for a docuseries about the late rapper, Deadline reports.
The first teaser the untitled documentary was released on Tuesday. The docuseries will include never-before-seen footage of Nip, as well as interviews with more than 50 collaborators including Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Diddy, and Nipsey’s longtime partner, Lauren London.
“It’s an incredible honor for SpringHill to have a part in sharing Nipsey’s story and legacy with the world,” LeBron said in a statement. “He used his gift to give back to his community and lived what it means to inspire, empower, and uplift others along the way. His words, his ambition, and his actions stick with me to this day as he continues to inspire myself, our company, and people everywhere.”
The series will be directed and executive produced by director One9, who’s helmed projects like L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later and Nas: Time is Illmatic.
Additional executive producers include Marathon Films’ Emani Asghedom and Kross Asghedom, and SpringHill’s LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, and Philip Bryon. Co-executive producers include Skylar Andrews and Naomi Wright.
“Nipsey was a man of the people,” Nipsey’s older brother Samiel “Blacc Sam” Asghedom said in a statement. “He often said his purpose in life was to inspire. Nipsey’s light shone across the world. His life is a testament that his purpose was fulfilled. The family has taken the proper time and care needed to ensure that Nipsey’s life story be detailed and presented correctly and accurately. We are honored to be able to cement Nipsey’s legacy with this epic docu-series of his life. Nipsey said, “’If they made a story about my life, it better be a classic.’”
Where can a superhero story that has lost its superhero go? Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (in theaters Friday) ultimately finds a new path forward, though director Ryan Coogler‘s grand, somber requiem makes it clear in nearly every scene that the late Chadwick Boseman is irreplaceable, both on and off screen.
This is a movie very much in mourning for the man it lost — as a star, a colleague, and a friend — which seems like strange if not uncharted territory for a comic-book universe in which death is a Snap, and resurrection rarely less than another sequel or end-credits sequence away. The result still pounds with busy CG spectacle and, at just under three hours, more mythology than any non-Marvel head may strictly need. But it’s also contemplative, character-driven, and frequently lovely: a faithful genre player imbued with a rare visual richness and real, painful poignancy.
King T’Challa’s death from an unspecified illness takes place before the title card, leaving his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), his mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and a kingdom bereft. Global villainy, though, allows little time for bereavement, and even less for story exposition; within minutes, an American recon mission for vibranium — the precious, indestructible metal for which Wakanda is the only known source — goes fatally awry somewhere deep in the Atlantic Ocean, confounding the U.S. government. The hordes that destroyed their ship and mesmerized the crew don’t seem like citizens of any country they’ve seen before: Their skin is tinged Avatar-blue, for one, and they appear to breathe easily underwater. Their leader, Namor (the brooding Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta), a formidable fighter with elfin ears and small, fluttering wings on his heels like a Greek god, turns out to have royal immortality in his blood, and intractable plans for Wakanda. As the ruler of an ancient deep-sea Mayan civilization called Talokan, he has his own people and resources to protect, and when he introduces himself to a still-grieving Ramonda and Shuri, he makes his terms clear: They can join him in defeating his land-bound foes, or be buried with them. There’s also a teenage girl, an Einstein-brained MIT student named Riri (Judas and the Black Messiah‘s Dominique Thorne), whose precocious inventions, among them an Iron Man-like suit, make her both a target and an asset (and inevitably, a place-marker for yet another lucrative fragment of IP; Thorne will star as Riri/Ironheart in a Disney+ series slated for 2023).
Fending off these new threats means bringing Riri on board and marshaling the forces of the Wakanda diaspora, including Danai Gurira ‘s ferociously loyal general Okoye, Winston Duke‘s towering warrior M’Baku, and Lupita Nyong’o ‘s retired spy Nakia, now living in self-imposed exile. Martin Freeman also returns as the Wakandans’ best American ally, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, with a vivid purple streak in her hair and an air of persistent Veep-y exasperation, drops in as the government honcho tasked with cleanup. (I May Destroy You‘s great Michaela Coel, alas, doesn’t get to do much with her own warrior bit.)
Coogler, who cowrote the script once again with Panther scribe Joe Robert Cole, sets up several anchoring set pieces, clangorous air-land-and-sea battles that travel from Boston bridges and Wakandan city centers to the ocean floor. Levity comes in a few brief but well-placed moments of release, little garnishes of comic relief — just watch Duke eat a carrot — that mitigate the heavy mantle of grief and the obligatory MCU business of saving the world, one franchise installment at a time. (The rules of engagement seem more arcane, or merely very flexible; it’s never completely clear what privileges various characters’ powers confer unless you knew them coming in.)
The most striking thing about the movie, though, may be what a matriarchy it is, both by nature and nurture: Without their king, Wakanda has become a queendom from the top down, overseen by Bassett’s regal, ageless Ramonda, the gorgeously daunting Gurira, and Wright, who rises to fill her dramatically expanded role with feline grace and vulnerability. Coogler also stacks his backline with talented women, including production designer Hannah Beachler and costumer Ruth E. Carter, who both won well-deserved Oscars for the first film.
Their shared vision of Afro-futurism feels lush and joyful and beautifully specific set against the usual white noise of Marvel fanfare, even (or almost especially) in darker moments, like the pristine rituals of a funeral scene. Wakanda is still clearly a Marvel property, with all the for-the-fans story beats and secondary characters its ever-expanding universe requires, but it also feels apart from any one that’s come before. And while a Black Panther without Boseman is undoubtedly nothing like the film’s creators or any of its cast wanted it to be, the movie they’ve made feels like something unusually elegant and profound at the multiplex; a little bit of forever carved out for the star who left too soon. Grade: B+
Jordan Peele’s Nope is everything movie fans have come to expect from him.
The director’s third feature film is over the top, odd in the best ways, terrifying, smart, original, and captivating, as well as perfectly cast. The film also follows the trend of Peele’s mysterious films continuously summoning audiences to theaters in an era where Marvel, franchises, and reboots rule the box office.Nope opened with $44 million on its opening weekend, making it the best for an original film opening since Peele’s Us, which made $71.1 million in April 2019.
The director knows that people are thirsty to be entertained, while others want to be stimulated. That’s why he made Nope a spectacle that is also injected with thoughtful commentary and symbolism that will feed the curious minds who love to dissect his films. Peele’s casting choices are also one of his greatest strengths as a filmmaker and that was reinforced by having Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as his leads in his third directorial project.
The sci-fi thriller’s storyline is about siblings OJ Haywood (Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Palmer), who have been Hollywood horse trainers since they were children. The film picks up six months after their dad’s bizarre death and OJ is the one living and working full time at the ranch, while his sister pursues other paths like acting, directing, singing, producing, etc. OJ is the muscle behind the operation; he cares for the horses and the ranch, but he is too introverted and reserved for a Hollywood set. Emerald is the one with the charisma and the upbeat energy needed to work in showbiz. OJ looks to his sister for rescue when they’re on set for a commercial at the start of the movie, and from the first time you see Palmer on the screen, all your focus shifts to her.
As the film progresses, we learn that there is an otherworldly object, or creature, living in a cloud above the ranch that may have caused their father’s death. Down on their luck and short on money, the Haywoods set out on a mission to capture the creature on video so that they could have the “Oprah shot” that could launch them into fame and wealth. There has been a connecting thread of societal commentary throughout Peele’s films that he often leaves open to interpretation for the audience, and Nope was no exception. In this case, the film explores Hollywood and the film industry and how Black people have had “skin in the game” since the beginning of filmmaking.
The chilling horror moments in the film provide plenty of jump scares while also showing the great lengths people are willing to go to get that one viral moment that could change their lives because anyone in their right mind would pack a bag and leave. Nope also explores the trauma that child stars often live with through Ricky “Jupe” Park’s (Steven Yeun) story, as well as the importance of siblings—who are oftentimes the people by your side when shit hits the fan regardless of your differences, which Emerald and OJ so perfectly represent here.
Both of the characters are so incredibly dissimilar, but so are Palmer and Kaluuya in their delivery as actors. Palmer’s character Emerald helps the tense film breathe a little easier. She adds levity, humor, and an authenticity that’s difficult to portray if that’s not something you already carry within. During a global press conference for the movie, Complex asked the actors what they learned from each other as professionals during filming, a question that gave them both pause. “I found it hard to show joy and be natural. And be extroverted and natural with it. It’s a very hard balance to do. It is way harder than people realize,” Kaluuya said. “People look at drama and think (it’s difficult)—but it’s kind of really simple. But in terms of being joyous and exuberant and then having a reality and a realness to it is very difficult, and Keke has that for free, naturally.”
He added: “She’s just got it. That is what I was taking in a lot, the decisions she made, like, ‘Oh, that’s how you do that? That’s how you could do that? I didn’t see it that way or think of that way, I never would have arrived at that.’”
Emerald’s humor is perfectly sprinkled throughout Nope, and at times you almost forget you’re watching a horror film. Palmer, alongside Brandon Perea (who plays an electronics store employee named Angel Torres and also delivered a standout performance), add the necessary comedy to make the story feel more realistic. Even in real life, sometimes we laugh to keep from crying. Both Emerald and Angel don’t seem to take things as seriously as OJ does at first, so in the hectic moments where they do panic, the audience knows it’s for good reason. Palmer shines the brightest in the third act, though, going from the film’s comedic relief to a full-on horror and then action star—adding even more excitement for all the roles she will inevitably land after Nope.
Palmer’s relaxed acting style is comparable to some of the most seasoned and respected actors out there. She’s genuine and raw and completely natural at what she does, which makes for the best acting. She may have decades of experience, but Nope is her best performance yet. Emerald is her vessel to let the world know what she is all about. Peele recognized that in her when they met, and he told Complex in an interview that he wrote the role specifically for the actress. She hits the full spectrum of human emotion throughout the film—joy, fear, sadness, confusion, resilience, etc.—and those last 15 or so minutes of the film undoubtedly belong to her. Palmer is a star, and an Oscar nomination in the Supporting Actress category seems appropriate here.
Palmer is also obviously not alone in her greatness. Kaluuya delivers yet another masterful performance as OJ, who is a quiet, focused man of few words, and whose priority is the ranch and its animals. In the film’s most frightening moments, Kaluuya’s character stays calm. OJ keeps his cool while managing to also show slight glimpses of fear, intimidation, heart, and determination as he dodges the creature in the sky. The actor’s poise in the roles we’ve seen him in so far is what made him a star and an Oscar winner so early on in his career. I’ve referred to him as the Denzel Washington of our generation, but that doesn’t seem like enough anymore. Peele referred to Kaluuya as being to him what Robert De Niro is to Martin Scorsese, which is the most fitting comparison, and my only hope is that there will be more collaborations between them down the line. READ MORE: https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/keke-palmer-nope-lead-roles/third-act
Jussie Smollett has launched his directorial debut with BET+ “B-Boy Blues.” The LGBTQ+ centered show will debut on the streaming network June 9, just in time for Pride Month. This project marks the first for Smollett since he was found guilty of making false reports on what he alleged to be a hate crime. He was then sentenced to 30 months’ probation, 150 days in jail, after making false reports to the police in January 2019 that he was a victim of a hate crime. “Through our content slate, we are intentional about representing the fullness of the Black experience, including that of the LGBTQ+ community,” BET+ exec VP/GM Devin Griffin said to Variety. “‘B-Boy Blues’ is an artful, heart-rending film about the complexity of love – something we all can relate to.”
“B-Boy Blues” is based on the James Earl Hardy novel and will star Timothy Richardson, Brandee Evans, Marquise Vilson, Broderick Hunter and Thomas Mackie.
JUSSIE SMOLLETT RELEASED FROM JAIL PENDING APPEAL: ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL TO CHARGE SOMEONE TWICE,’ LAWYER SAYS
The indie film first debuted in 2021 at the American Black Film Festival. The film won the Narrative Feature Fan Favorite Award.
Smollett’s first project since released from jail is described as “a clash of class and culture when Mitchell Crawford, a college educated journalist from Brooklyn and Raheim Rivers, a bike messenger from Harlem, fall in love.”
“B-Boy Blues is a beautifully bold, funny, heartwarming bro-mance and I was thrilled to partner with Jussie to help this wonderful film gain greater exposure,” Mona Scott-Young of Monami Entertainment told the outlet.
JUSSIE SMOLLETT RELEASED FROM JAIL: WILL HE SUCCESSFULLY APPEAL CONVICTION? LEGAL EXPERTS WEIGH IN
“Falling head over heels and fighting for love are universal emotions and experiences and we are so grateful to BET+ for shining a powerful spotlight on the still seriously underrepresented black LGBTQ+ community and bringing this impactful love story to an even greater audience.” Three weeks after Smollett was released from jail, he released a song titled “Thank You God.” The former “Empire” star shared the single on his Instagram account, which according to his bio is “currently run by” the Smollett family.
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