The Mad Professah Lectures

I'm very excited to report that Patrik-Ian Polk's Blackbird is finally getting a cinematic release today more than a year after its premiere at the Pan-African Film Festival in Los Angeles last year (which I attended). It was #10 on my Best Films of 2014 list.

Blackbird will be opening in these theaters in  Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and New York City today:

• Atlanta AMC Phipps Plaza AMC Southlake Pavilion 
• Los Angeles AMC Town Center 8 TCL Chinese Theatre Los Angeles Cinemark 18 
• Washington DC City Cinemas Angelika Pop UP DC ArcLight Bethesda 
• New York City AMC Village AMC Empire 25
• San Francisco AMC Metreon

The new film from Patrik-Ian Polk is Blackbird, and it is the first film that Oscar-winner Mo'Nique has starred in since winning the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Precious. Blackbird is based on a book by openly gay, African-American author Larry Duplechan that is considered a classic of Black gay fiction.

Blackbird is a classic Black gay young adult novel published in 1986 written by Larry Duplechan about growing up Black and gay in the South. The film adaptation of it is being filmed by Patrik-Ian Polk (Noah's Arc, The Skinny) and this week came the big news that Oscar-winner Mo'Nique has agreed to star in the film, along with Isaiah Washington. Both Duplechan and Polk are openly gay (and African-American).

A synopsis of Blackbird the film is:

Blackbird tells the story of 17-year-old Randy Rousseau (newcomer Julian Walker), a devout high school choir boy struggling to come of age in the small religiously conservative Mississippi town he calls home. Randy juggles his role as star of the church choir with facing the everyday trials of life as a high school misfit- a misfit plagued by eerie visions and premonitions. Complicating matters, his little sister has gone missing and his parents have subsequently split up, leaving him to care for his heartbroken mother, Claire (Mo’Nique). When Claire discovers a shocking secret her son has been hiding, she blames him for the disappearance of his sister. Randy’s father, Lance (Isaiah Washington), who has been keeping a watchful eye on his broken family, steps in to give his son a hand as he struggles to make the difficult transition into manhood.

I have previously greatly enjoyed Polk's earlier films (The Skinny) and am definitely looking forward to seeing Blackbird. I may even read the book first, although generally I think it is better to see the film and then read the book.