Brother to Brother

Brother to Brother is an interesting film that highlights artists from the Harlem Renaissance and the similar plight contemporary African American artists face today. Like most first time film makers, Rodney Evans tries to accomplish too much in his first narrative film. That he succeeds as well as he does is a testament to his talent and love for his subject manner. This is a film about thoughts and concepts, conflict comes from a deeply internal place: How does a young black artist reconcile the duality of being Black and Gay. How do you handle it when other African-Americans hatred is stronger than the solidarity you want from them? The film is lyrical, appropriately poetic and sincere. Anthony Mackie is strong as the young artist (Perry) who stumbles across an elderly writer from the renaissance who has fallen on hard times, Bruce Nugent, wonderfully played by Roger Robinson. All the performances have charm and style. Brother to Brother is not a perfect film, but without making any special allowances it is an ambitious thoughtful film. It shows a time and place almost overlooked by the general public but worth more than a second look.

I was thoroughly impressed w/ Rodney Evan's Brother to Brother. It was a refreshing coming of age story. To add a historic context was genius. This movie was bold in that it brought to light the homosexual subtext of the Harlem Renaissance. BTB was not laden w/ stereotypical imagery that often plagues Black cinema. The setting was simple, one of which we can relate. My favorite scene was the skit that included James Balwin whereby Baldwin had to defend why being gay does nothing to hinder 'the movement.' Although Evans had many concurrent themes, the movie was not over-bearing. From familial troubles to inter-racial relationships, we saw that Perry's character was multi-dimensional Kudos!

"Brother to Brother" just won the two most coveted awards at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival - otherwise known as Outfest. The Audience Award for Best Feature and the Jury Prize for Best Feature! And I was one of over a thousand queerfolk who voted them into the first award. This film is amazing!

The Harlem Renaissance was a seminal period in African American history; one that can be seen to have repercussions through to Stonewall and beyond. Sadly, it was one of the only times in our history where African American queers and other "outcasts" created and published their own voices for the world to see, read, and hear. And hear it they did.

Some of the most powerful and important queer poetry and prose were written during this time by the likes of the incredible Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, and of course, Bruce Nugent; one of the main characters in this story.

Over the course of befriending Perry, a present-day artist/student trying to find his own voice in the world, Bruce recounts some of his own history with his radical, groundbreaking friends.

The film is exquisitely composed. The music created for "Brother to Brother" is eloquent and evocative and perfectly reflects and tints the images and perspectives within the story. Organic timing creates an engaging flow of story and character which passes back and forth from past to present and back; revealing at once how much and how little has changed over the last 80 years of Black (and queer) history.

All in all, this film ends as handsome Perry begins to find a clearer path for himself in the world. It ultimately gives us much of value that is even more than the sum of its respective parts. Most importantly, it shows us ourselves - beautiful, flawed, real human beings who seek nothing more than to have a voice, to give and receive love, and to make life as good as it can be.

This is one film which fully deserves its place in movie theaters and in DVD collections.

We just had an amazing screening of BROTHER TO BROTHER in Minneapolis last night. The response to the film and filmmaker was overwhelmingly positive. Not only did the audience love the film, but the press was also wild about it. Some of the conservative African American newspapers wrote some of the most positive pieces about the film surprisingly. Having such great press created an audience that was extremely mixed in terms of race and gender. During the Q & A with the filmmaker, it became obvious that his film touched on subject matter that had deep meaning for audience members no matter their background.

I'm so happy that this film has been picked up for distribution because it is essential that it's seen by a wider audience. If you have the opportunity to see the film, don't pass it up!

There is a strong and understandable tendency to over praise films dealing with or representing minority groups simply as a means of encouragement. It's all very well being supportive of a particular minority group, but biased criticism ultimately does nobody any good.

Countless of very mediocre gay themed movies have received disproportionate praise. With themes of being black as well as being gay, "Brother to Brother" is a perfect candidate for such slanted criticism.

Let me state clearly, that to my mind, "Brother to Brother" is in no way mediocre clearly having being made with much care and devotion. As others have pointed out, it's informative and educational in its depiction and discussions of the Harlem Renaissance about which not terribly much is known by the wider public. Rodney Evans proves himself a director and writer with a lot of promise.

However labelling this a "masterpiece" or "amazing" is to do a disservice to Evans. Hopefully he will go on to create masterpieces and amazing films but this is not it. "Brother to Brother" has much to recommend it. The performances are solid, the dialogue flows, the characters are interesting, and the cinematography is way above the average for a first time indie effort. For all this Rodney Evans certainly deserves praise.

With all the genuine will to encourage young black, (or gay) film makers, it's important to keep focus on the real quality of the work. "Brother to Brother" despite it merits doesn't quite make the grade.