IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Newcomer KiKi Lane shines as an idealistic young woman living in 1970s’ Harlem, in a new film by Barry Jenkins, whose Moonlight won an Academy Award® for Best Picture. The first American film to be based on a novel by James Baldwin (!), it takes on a part of the black experience in America: unwarranted incarceration. KiKi Lane and Stephan James play Tish and Fonny, a young couple who are just discovering love when he is sent to prison for a rape he didn’t commit. Pregnant and alone, Tish turns to her mother (Regina King) to find a way forward. Jenkins’ extraordinary use of color, music, and camera motion bring him to the forefront of 21st-century American filmmakers.

“Carves a holy place in a hard, hard world…it holds out hope — visually, sonically, emotionally, spiritually — for a world that hardly seems to deserve it.” – Ty Burr, Boston Globe.