Trivia

According to writer and director Kasi Lemmons, her cut differed greatly from the final cut released to theaters, which eliminated a major character from the movie.

Jurnee Smollett and Jake Smollett are brother and sister in real life.

In his book "Awake in the Dark", Roger Ebert named this the best film of 1997.

The film was selected by the Library of Congress in 2018 for preservation in the National Film registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Deborah Cox's music video for "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" was filmed on the main property, as its director, Darren Grant, was a big fan of this movie.