Blackbird

Blackbird (2014)

Will you choose to be what you had no choice in being...

Seventeen-year-old Randy tries very hard to be a good person. Since his father left, Randy takes care of his emotionally disturbed mother, and he's the kind of friend all of his classmates can depend on. As strong as he seems on the outside, Randy is hiding a secret inner struggle and denial of his true self. It's not until he opens himself up to love that he discovers that becoming a man means accepting who you really are.

Date of release
2014-02-16
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (38)
Runtime
1h 39m
Genres
Drama
Director
Patrik-Ian Polk

Casting

Interesting facts

Blackbird is a 2014 drama film directed by Patrik-Ian Polk and starring Mo'Nique and Isaiah Washington. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Larry Duplechan and was released theatrically on April 24, 2015.

Background

Polk initially tried to get the film made several years earlier, with Jussie Smollett cast as the young lead, however financing fell through. When the funding came through years later, he was forced to re-cast because of Smollett's busy schedule on Empire, and struggled to find a black male actor who would portray a gay love story on screen.

Polk discussed, in an interview with BuzzFeed, the need for more stories featuring gay men who aren't white: Through my years of filmmaking, we have seen the gay coming-of-age story from every possible white male point of view ... We’ve seen it over, and over, and over.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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