Mo’Nique in gay coming-of-age Blackbird, trailer and poster

Thanks to our good friend Chance Calloway for reminding me about Blackbird, a movie we first heard about in mid-February this year. It’s back in the conversation now because it’s been selected to screen at this month’s NewFest, New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival, 3 weeks from now. Blackbird is directed by Patrik-Ian Polk and stars Isaiah Washington, Mo’Nique, Julian Walker star.
Read on for more details.

NewFest, New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival, has announced a 2014 feature film lineup led by Karim Aïnouz’s “Futuro Beach,” the opening night presentation, with the New York premiere of Bruce LaBruce’s “Gerontophila” closing out the festival.

“In the year following spectacular LGBT civil rights advances across the country, the dynamic and fresh slate of 2014 NewFest films decisively demonstrates that artists and storytellers lead the charge in creating social change,” said Kristin Pepe, Outfest’s director of programming.

Also on the slate are Ben Whishaw starrer “Lilting” (pictured above), above a man struggling to connect with the Chinese-Cambodian mother of his recently deceased boyfriend; “Blackbird,” about a band of high school seniors in a small Southern town and co-starring Mo’Nique and Isaiah Washington; “Jamie Marks Is Dead,” with Judy Greer, Liv Tyler and Cameron Monaghan appearing in the story of a high school track star haunted by a sexy teen ghost; and “Lyle,” which toplines Gaby Hoffmann in a queer twist on a “Rosemary’s Baby” story.

NewFest, in Partnership with L.A.’s Outfest and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, takes place July 24-29. (Variety)

Synopsis:

Blackbird tells the story of 17-year-old Randy Rousseau, a devout high school choir boy struggling to come of age in the small religiously conservative Mississippi town he calls home. Randy juggles his role as star of the church choir with facing the everyday trials of life as a high school misfit- a misfit plagued by eerie visions and premonitions. Complicating matters, his little sister has gone missing and his parents have subsequently split up, leaving him to care for his heartbroken mother, Claire. When Claire discovers a shocking secret her son has been hiding, she blames him for the disappearance of his sister. Randy’s father, Lance, who has been keeping a watchful eye on his broken family, steps in to give his son a hand as he struggles to make the difficult transition into manhood.

Nice interview with Mo’Nique and Isaiah Washington