IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK Closes Out Smithsonian African American Film Festival

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK closes out inaugural Smithsonian African American Film Festival at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, October 27th.

Attendees from the film included Regina King, KiKi Layne, Stephan James & BARRY Jenkins. Notable guests included esteemed journalist Roland Martin, activist DeRay McKesson, activist April Reign, writer Clint Smith, The Atlantic's Vann Newkirk, journalist Michele Norris (who moderated the post-screening Q&A) and several members of the Baldwin family.

Academy Award-winning writer/director BARRY Jenkins' first film since the Best Picture Oscar-winning Moonlight is If Beale Street Could Talk, his adaptation of James Baldwin's novel - the first English-language feature film based on the work of the author, to whom the movie is dedicated.

Set in early-1970s Harlem, If Beale Street Could Talk is a TIMELESS and moving love story of both a couple's unbreakable bond and the African-American family's empowering embrace, as told through the eyes of 19-year-old Tish Rivers (screen newcomer KiKi Layne). A daughter and wife-to-be, Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and TRUST that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny(Stephan James). Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit.

Through the unique intimacy and power of cinema, If Beale Street Could Talk honors the author's prescient words and imagery, charting the emotional currents navigated in an unforgiving and racially biased world as the filmmaker poetically crosses time frames to show how love and humanity endure.

Director: BARRY Jenkins
Writer: BARRY Jenkins
Producers: Megan Ellison, BARRY Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Sara Murphy, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner
Cast: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Beach, Ed Skrein, Diego Luna, Dave Franco, Pedro Pascal