We Will Follow

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As the war between Tyler Perry and Spike Lee heated up last week, causing plumes of dust to be raised by the rubble of viewers that littered the country side, a quiet unassuming movie about the often complicated  and  unexplored emotions surrounding loss continued to rise up, reaching for the Blockbuster list.

I Will Follow, a movie about one day in the life of a woman grieving a lost aunt and the twelve visitors who pass by was written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It has been described as tender, complex, soulful, passionate and interesting.

Ms. DuVernay is no newbie to the movie directing scene. Her very successful documentary about Hip Hop in South Central L.A. and its roots at The Good Life debuted in 2008 and won several awards including Best Documentary at the Hollywood Black Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival and Documentary Toronto Reel World Film Festival. You can check out the trailer for that documentary here. She also produced two network documentaries, My Mic Sounds Nice - an interesting look into the history of black women in the hip hop industry from artists like Missy Elliot and MC Lyte and the second on the Essence Music Festival 2010.

According to the Facebook Page set up for the movie the last showing is in Washington DC for the African American Film Festival Releasing Movement.

In a critical time of story telling, when Hollywood has raised the battle call for America's entertainment money, the black community doesn't have many voices lending their own to the fray. We know we are dying to hear more, to see more of ourselves that doesn't include the wildly caricatured characters who are either stuck in a place of perpetual comedy (which we do not mind sometimes) or involved in a shootout (which we don't mind either).

Trailer - I Will Follow

If you are in the DC area, get yourself to the West End Cinema to see this movie, then come back and tell us what you thought about the movie.

Rotten Tomatoes Rating - 80%
Roger Ebert - Thumbs Up
IMDB Metascore - 71%

Have you seen the movie "I Will Follow"? What are your thoughts about it? Would you go to see it in the movie theater if it was released on the big screen?