BORDERLINES FILM FESTIVAL

DIRECTOR: RaMell Ross
STARRING: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
US, 2024, 2 HOURS 20 MINUTES, ENGLISH
AD AUDIO DESCRIPTION AVAILABLE

A superlative adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of Elwood, a black teen sent to the hellish Nickel Academy.

Elwood befriends fellow student Turner and together they find a way to squirrel hope against the odds.

Documentary maker RaMell Ross launches into feature filmmaking with this audacious and profoundly moving tale of a mid-century reform school, based on a notorious real-life institution. He uses an entirely visual means to explore not only what happened, but also how it felt, finding a new language to speak about the long shadow of trauma, one that leaves cliché behind.

Pushing the painful to the margins, just as its characters do, this is impressive filmmaking.

“How often do you watch something so original, it changes the way you think about image construction itself?” Sophie Monks Kaufman, Time Out

The screening on Sunday is sponsored by MALVERN BOOK COOPERATIVE