Bangkok--4 Sep--OutCome PR
“Those days are gone where it used to be community first. It’s a different era, and what I want to do with Lackawanna Blues is tap people on the shoulder and remind them hey, we took care of each other at one time.” — Writer Ruben Santiago-Hudson
LACKAWANNA BLUES is a warm and vibrant drama, an inspiring coming of age story, an illustration of a mother-son love that transcends biological ties, and the telling of an extraordinary woman who built a community and circumvented segregation in her own determined way. Like a good blues song, the film strikes notes that are painful but beautiful, ones that remain alive to both the heartbreaks and joys of life.
Based on the acclaimed autobiographical one-man show by actor-playwright Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who wrote the adaptation and appears in the movie; co-executive produced by the Oscar?-winning actress Halle Berry (Monsters’ Ball) and directed by George C.Wolfe, LACKAWANNA BLUES pays homage to an era gone by. It takes an affectionate look at the ties that bind an African-American community in the period just before desegregation. The drama takes place primarily as a flashback to Santiago-Hudson’s childhood, starting with his birth in the upstate NY town of Lackawanna during a raucous Friday-night hosted by Rachel “Nanny” Crosby (S. Epatha Merkerson, Law And Order).
A boy in the 1950s and 60s, with his parents unable to take care of him, Ruben Jr. (Marcus Carl Franklin) was adopted by Nanny — proprietor of a rooming house and mentor to countless down-on-their luck blacks who moved there from Nanny's hometown in Virginia. Nanny's place is not just walls and a roof, but a home where misfits and drifters can escape their personal hells to find a fresh start and a family. Against this background, Jr. receives an education in life from a diverse and colorful group of boarders. However, his biggest bond will always be with Nanny, in a relationship that nobody, not even a pair of zealous social workers, can tear asunder.
For more information please contact:
OutCome PR Tel: 02-259-5667 E-mail: [email protected]
Wanitchaya Yuktasevi 01-944-5571
Naerunchala Mahaphun 01-855-6944
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