Introduction from Brandon David Wilson via Zoom.

(Dir. Victoria Mahoney, starring Zoe Kravitz, Tim Blake Nelson, Sonequa Martin-Green, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, Jason Clarke, Antonique Smith, Gabourey Sidibe, 2011)

By the time this film was released, the “‘Hood Film” was past its prime, but in the 1990s, this sub-genre reigned. For her feature directorial debut (which world premiered at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival) Victoria Mahoney returned to this style of film but made it her own. Utilizing a combination of handheld camerawork and fluid long takes (the film was shot by Reed Morano who has since moved into the director’s chair herself), Mahoney borrows the syntax of ‘Hood films to tell the story of Sweetness O’Hara, a mixed race girl from a troubled family who is drifting into the nihilism of the streets when her home fails to give her the love and security she craves. By opening with a heartstopping scene of intraracial/colorist bullying, Mahoney throws down the gauntlet. She announces herself as both an accomplished director (Mahoney was a second unit director on Star Wars: Episode IX) and a fearless storyteller who tells the truth even if it violates the stifling propriety that earlier generations of Black heroines were restricted by.  ~Brandon David Wilson