The Luminal’s SUMMER OF LOVE begins here!
gates open at 7pm — films begin at 7:30pm
July 9th
Love & Basketball
Written & directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood • 2000 • 124 min • United States
With Omar Epps, Sanaa Lathan, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Debbi Morgan, Harry Lennix, and Kyla Pratt
From childhood, Monica (Lathan) and Quincy (Epps) meet and instantly bond through their love of basketball. As they grow older, their love of the game blossoms into a mutual romance. But when their athletic ambitions upend their relationship, can they both love each other again, and both love the game?
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s dramatic masterpiece makes you appreciate life and love. But as adept as the direction is, the casting is equally spot on with co-starring roles for Debbi Morgan (just off of her star-making turn in “Eve’s Bayou”), the incomparable Alfre Woodard, Dennis Hasbert as Quincy’s basketball star dad Zeke, in addition to early career roles for Regina Hall, Gabrielle Union, Boris Kodjoe, and of course Kyla Pratt as a young Monica. But most of all, Sanaa Lathan imbues Monica with equal toughness and vulnerability that allows you to feel everything that Monica is going through, supported by Epps tenacity and leading man charm and looks.
Real talk, these are also just some beautifully diverse Black people on-screen!
July 23
Buck & The Preacher
“Love for Sidney”
Directed by Sidney Poitier • 1972 • 102 min • United States
With Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee
Films at the Farm’s “Summer of Love” series ends with a first, our inaugural “Love for Sidney” film, his directorial debut, BUCK & THE PREACHER.
Set just after the Civil War, former Union army sergeant Buck (Poitier) works as a wagon master leading Black homesteaders to the unsettled Kansas territories. However, their dreams of the promised land are derailed by bounty hunters, hired by Louisiana plantation owners to either scare their former slaves back to Louisiana…or kill them. Following a skirmish, a con artist masquerading as a Preacher (Belafonte), joins the group, and constantly clashes with Buck, they put aside their differences to do whatever it takes to get the wagon train west.
Steeped in history but still full of action - especially of the cowboy variety - and dark humor, Belafonte especially steals the show as the dubious (and grimy!) Reverend Willis Oaks Rutherford. Yet Poitier, reunited with his “A Raisin in the Sun” co-star Ruby Dee, is equally brilliant as the steely co-title character, determined to provide opportunities for his people.
Seldom seen, “Buck and the Preacher” is a delight, and embodies the best of what Sidney had to offer his movie audiences.
PAST SCREENINGS
June 3rd
Love Jones
Directed by Theodore Witcher • 1997 • 110 min • United States
With Larenz Tate, Nia Long, Bill Bellamy, Isaiah Washington, Lisa Nicole Carson, Leonard Roberts, Bernadette Speakes
When aspiring writer Darius (Tate) meets aspiring photographer Nina (Long), the twentysomethings instantly connect after a chance meeting at a Chicago club.
Bonding over music, photography and poetry, they begin a steamy romance. However, when neither of the lovers can find the maturity to commit, the undeniably perfect couple's future is put in jeopardy.
Affectionate and smart, charismatic and sexy, LOVE JONES captures the spirit of Chicago and late 90’s Black arts scene with spoken word, Steppin, and soul music buoyed by a stellar soundtrack featuring Lauryn Hill, Maxell, Dionne Farris, Cassandra Wilson and many more.
Love Jones is rated R for mild profanity, partial nudity and brief but steamy sexual scenes
preceded by KELA’s to be free
Using slide-motion, this self-portrayed and self-narrated illustrative film taps into perspectives around resistance, surrender, and freedom by immersion into nature and embracing our duality as human beings.
June 18th
Miss Juneteenth
Directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples • 2020 • 93 min • United States
With Nicole Beharie, Alexis Chikaeze, Kendrick Sampson, Akron Watson
Turquoise, a former beauty queen turned hard-working single mother, prepares her rebellious teenage daughter Kai for the local Ft. Worth, Texas “Miss Juneteenth” pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she did.
Celebrating the intimate yet precarious line between wanting the best for your children and projecting your own unfulfilled dreams upon them, the power of Black womanhood (and sisterhood), and YES, the glory and brilliance of the Juneteenth holiday that celebrates Black Americans’ emancipation from slavery, Peoples’ directorial debut and Beharie’s return to leading lady status is a can’t miss.
preceded by
TEN FIVE IN THE GRASS
Directed by Kevin Jerome Everson • 2012 • 32 min • United States
A 16mm film ( transferred to digital, color) about Black cowgirls and cowboys preparing themselves for the rodeo event of calf roping. Filmed in Lafayette, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi, in the summer of 2011, the title refers to the type of rope used to capture fast calves.