In 1995, writer/director Clement Virgo’s first feature film “Rude,” made its theatrical debut, wowing international audiences, and marking a significant milestone in African-Canadian cinematic history as the first full length narrative feature film directed by an African-Canadian, and written and produced by an all-Black team.
Digitally restored in 2017, The Caribbean Film Series is screening RUDE in homage to the Jamaican-born, Toronto-raised director Clement Virgo, whose subsequent projects, such as “The Planet of Junior Brown,” “The Book of Negroes,” and his work on the OWN network smash hit “Greenleaf,” continue to transform the wide-ranging ways audiences explore Black life, with a fresh Brooklyn screening of his now classic film.
A vivid triptych on the struggle for redemption on an Easter weekend, “Rude” weaves together the stories of three urban-dwelling Torontonians: young, promising boxer Jordan (Richard Chevolleau), sparring inwardly with his sexual identity after reluctantly participating in a gay-bashing; Maxine (Rachael Crawford, “Love Songs,” and SyFy’s “Alphas”), who struggles with her mental health as she reels in the aftermath of a break-up and an abortion; and the primary story of The General (Maurice Dean Wint, “TekWar”), a talented muralist and former drug dealer newly released from prison, who fights old temptations as he struggles to be a good father and husband. This triad is rhythmically woven together by the voice of Rude (Sharon L. Lewis, director of “Brown Girl Begins”), an underground radio DJ, whose smoky voice and streetwise incantations touch on notions of death, grace, and transformation, and verbalize the collective consciousness of the city in a sultry patois.
“Virgo’s film captures the ebb and flow of events in an inner-city Toronto neighborhood,” says Richard Harrington of The Washington Post. “The challenges faced by his protagonists are universal.” Indeed, with a deliberate focus on the diasporic consciousness residing within Black Canadian identity, buoyed by an eclectic soundtrack of reggae, gospel, and rock music and contrast rich color pallets, “Rude” rides heavy with themes of cultural displacement and relocation felt then, and now, by Black, indigenous, and other non-white Canadians.
A Q&A with Melanie Nicholls King (Actor) and Damon D’Olivera (Producer), follows.
RUDE
Clement Virgo
Canada | 1995 | 89 min
This is the Easter weekend. In an inner-city project, three people struggle against their demons and try to find redemption. They are Maxine, a window dresser depressed since she had an abortion and lost her lover; Jordan, a boxer who has indulged in gay-bashing; and ‘The General’, a drug dealer turned artist.
Preceded by
HOW TO BUILD A TREEHOUSE
Directed by Gavin Mendonca
Guyana | 2018 | 10 min
A lone guitarist sits on the Sea Wall, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Guyana, strumming his guitar. He closes his eyes and begins hearing powerful words in the ancient and native Patamona language, perhaps the voice of ‘Kai.’ When he opens his eyes, he finds himself in a new, unfamiliar place.