Directed by Tanya Hamilton
The debut feature from Tanya Hamilton exposes the realities of African-American life during the final days of the Black Power movement, as potluck suppers, run-ins with the authorities, and lingering radicalism threaten to set off a neighborhood teetering on the edge. Set in Philadelphia in 1976, Night Catches Us focuses on two former Black Panther activists (Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington) who reunite during the summer before Jimmy Carter’s election.
Through two people drawn together despite their past, the film paints a fresh perspective of the era and gives an allegory for our own times in the age of Obama. Playing two friends forced to confront personal and political demons, Mackie and Washington give spectacular performances, while Hamilton’s use of a compelling soundtrack (by The Roots) and moving archival footage bring to life the history of black resistance.
2010. USA. 90 min.
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Sun Mar 28: 6:00 (FSLC)
Mon Mar 29: 9:00 (MoMA)
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Sundance Fellow Tanya Hamilton received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts Grant for Night Catches Us, making her the only screenwriter to ever receive the award. She is also the recipient of a Gordon Parks Screenwriting Award, the Urban World Film Festival Screenwriting Award, a 5-County Arts Grant of the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship. Her short film The Killers was awarded Best Short Film at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival and the 1997 New Line Cinema Award. In the same year she also received the Director’s Guild of America Award for Best Female Director.
