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Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.
Portal
U.S., 2022
Rodney Evans’ latest film Portal is a visual essay that documents how Evans and his friend Homay King navigate the new life thrust upon them by the COVID-19 pandemic. A resonant time capsule that dwells on human connection over isolation, the short’s visual language balances images of repose — laying on a bed, sleeping on a couch — with active, physical movement outdoors. With poetry and prose written by Evans and King, as well as intimate audio recordings, together they placidly narrate the radical life changes that 2020 wrought, inviting viewers to collectively process their own pandemic stories alongside and through the portal that is Portal.—Beandrea July
DCP, color, 12 min. Director: Rodney Evans. Screenwriters: Rodney Evans, Homay King.
Brother to Brother
U.S., 2004
Rodney Evans’ moving feature debut stands firmly on the shoulders of the 1990s Queer New Wave, portraying its Black queer characters with depth and unflinching authenticity. Evans won the coveted Jury Prize for Dramatic Feature at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival for this film, and helped launch the career of Anthony Mackie. The film also includes early appearances by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Lance Reddick. Mackie plays Perry Williams, a Black art student navigating success in a white-dominated sphere, homophobic classmates and fetishization by his white lover. Through his friendship with Bruce Nugent, a Black gay elder who is an artist, poet and a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Perry finds confidence and pride as he begins to realize he is part of a living legacy. More than 30 years after its release, Brother to Brother easily stands up as a classic in modern American independent cinema.—Beandrea July
35mm, color, 90 min. Director/Screenwriter: Rodney Evans. With: Anthony Mackie, Roger Robinson, Ray Ford, Larry Gilliard Jr., Aunjanue Ellis.
Support for the screening is provided by the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation Queer Screening Endowment and The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation.
