Black Herstory Month: February’s VOD and Web Series Picks
We’re kicking off Black History Month with some Black Herstory: our VOD and web series selections are all written and directed by Black women.
This month’s VOD picks come from two participants in the AT&T Hello Lab Mentorship program for emerging filmmakers. Nefertite Nguvu and Gabrielle Shepard were mentored by the rapper-actor Common and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, respectively, while making their films. Nguvu’s “The Last Two Lovers at the End of the World” is a future-set drama that imagines an Afrofuturistic utopia, while Shepard’s “Candid” tells the story of a young street photographer dealing with the loss of her mother.
The main characters of both of this month’s web series picks are Black women creatives making art and figuring out what they want in their relationships and careers. “Leimert Park” — which centers on three friends living together in South LA — was selected to premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The recently-wrapped fest marked the first time Sundance devoted an entire section of programing to independent episodic work. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn-set series “195 Lewis” focuses on a Black lesbian couple navigating polyamory and their tribe of friends as they try to make it in New York City.
Here are our VOD and web series selections for February.
VOD
“The Last Two Lovers at the End of the World”— Written and Directed by Nefertite Nguvu
A young couple facing the end of the world in the year 2029 and must decide who they want to bring with them into an undefined utopian future. For writer-director Nefertite Nguvu, it is healers, artists, and teachers that need to be saved if there will ever be a utopia. Despite being under the watchful eye of an ever-present police state, a heroic young Black couple refuses to let the repressive conditions of the 2029 world keep them from losing their humanity.
“The Last Two Lovers at the End of the World” is available on DIRECTV NOW.
“Candid” — Written and Directed by Gabrielle Shepard
“Candid” explores the relationship between Ace — a young street photographer — and her single father as she prepares to leave home for college, which forces them both to wrestle with the untimely death of her mother. An ode to the photograph, “Candid” shows us how images from our daily lives carry memory and meaning that must be reckoned with in the present. Time goes back and forth seamlessly throughout the film, similar to the way an old photograph can shoot us all back in time in an instant.
Check out “Candid” on DIRECTV NOW.
Web Series
“Leimert Park”— Created by Mel Jones, Kady Kamakaté, and Davita Scarlett; Directed by Mel Jones, Written by Davita Scarlett
There’s a lot to love about this series: a non-traditional family model of a married couple sharing a house with the wife’s two best friends; that the best friends — Mickey, Kendra, and Bridget — are creatives who have to reckon with how to make their art and survive; and last (but certainly not least), the insistence upon and normalization of female sexual pleasure. On top of all this, the series touches upon gentrification in a historically Black South Los Angeles neighborhood. For a project tackling so much, it’s no small feat that it remains equal parts hilarious and thoughtful throughout its 50-minute run.
“Leimert Park” premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Keep an eye on its official Facebook and Twitter to find out where to watch and other info.
“195 Lewis” — Created by Rae Leone Allen and Yaani Supreme; Directed by Chanelle Aponte Pearson
Through a newly polyamorous couple — Yuri, an up and coming painter, and her partner Camile, a jobhunting Ph.D — this five-episode series leads with its sex-positive, non-traditional worldview. Beautifully shot with vibrant color overlays and close-ups of the many beautiful Black women that Yuri and her musician friend Ann encounter, the images amplify the colorful stories of the characters.
Watching “195 Lewis,” it’s hard not to think about the advice often given to writers, “Write the story you don’t see but wish existed.” This series is nothing if not that, a hyper-specific slice of Black lesbian polyamorous life that gives the world a chance to empathize with characters we rarely see onscreen. Creators Rae Leone Allen and Yaani Supreme and director Chanelle Aponte Pearson are definitely ones to watch.
You can watch the first season of “195 Lewis” on its website.
