Being Black Enough or (How to Kill a Black Man): Dances With Films Festival

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There was a standing ovation at The World Premiere of Devin Rice’s Being Black Enough or (How to Kill a Black Man)at the 20th Dances With Films Festival. With an amazing cast , this intense movie had everyone spellbound as they say how a young black man from a good neighborhood community, tries to fit in the “hood” and hang out with his gangster cousin and his gang, and survive without being shot !
This movie went on to win The AUDIENCE AWARD for a Fusion Feature.  Based on writer-director-star Devin Rice’s youth in Los Angeles, the semi-autobiographical drama touches on what it means to “be Black”, how race is seen through the eyes of different people and groups and the consequences of these perspectives. Below is a photo of the entire cast during The Q & A , after The Premiere at Dances With Films at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters :  
BEING BLACK ENOUGH :
Devin Rice – Writer/ Director/Producer/Cast
Jacqueline Corcos – Producer/Cast
Steven David Horwich – Associate producer
Danielle Jaffey – Cast
Joshua Walker – Cast
Derick Hale Jr. – Cast
Matthew-David Smith – Cast
Trinity Marquez – Cast
Marcus Ajose – Associate producer
Olga Natividad – Cast
David Black Plascencia – Cast
Eric Anthony – Cast
Bruce A Lemon Jr. – Cast
Daniel Rovira – Cast
Jessica Sterling

A young Black man, raised in a predominantly white neighborhood and ridiculed for not being “Black enough”, decides to go to the hood to hang out with his gangster cousin and discover what it really means to be “Black.” He eventually faces the harsh realities of gang violence, drugs and police confrontation. 

On the genesis of his directorial debut, Rice said, “Being Black Enough is a very personal film, laced with my own life experience. All throughout my childhood, even up to today, I was made fun of for not being ‘Black Enough’. This, based on the clothes I’ve worn, the way I speak, my interests in life. Not just from White or Black people, but from people from all walks of life. Everyone seems to have this idea of what it means to be ‘Black’. This unspoken thing that’s understood all throughout America. It’s like self-perpetuating slavery without chains.”
Rice felt the need to make this project after he saw the increasing news coverage of Black men being shot by the police. “It made me frustrated and very angry…What if that was me who got shot by the police?” Shortly after Rice wrote the script and he and his producing partner Jacqueline Corcos crowdfunded the film. They ended up making it for a meager budget and wore nearly all the filmmaking hats themselves, inspired by films like El Mariachiand Clerks.

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