As MGLFF's 2004 Program was going to press, we left a surprise screening slot open on Saturday, April 24th at 9:30p, for what we promised would be a major new title. Well, here it is!

Brother To Brother, Rodney Evan’s first narrative feature, which took two years to research and six years to bring to fruition, was a deserving winner of a Special Jury Prize for "passion in filmmaking" at the recent Sundance Film Festival. Evan’s forays into the history of the Harlem Renaissance, moves beyond Issac Julien’s Looking For Langston, and resurrects, to claim their place historically, gay and lesbian writers poets and activists including Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas and Bruce Nugent.

Straddling contemporary New York and the Harlem of the 1930s, the heart of this captivating drama rests on the chance meeting betw een Perry Williams and Bruce Nugent. Perry, a young gay talented artist and literary scholar, is struggling with the double whammy of racism and homophobia - his father has thrown him out for being gay, his black classmates are homophobic and his white boyfriend adores him for his skin color. Bruce, an elderly gentleman who stays at the homeless shelter where Perry works to pay for his college education, is a living relic. A gay poet and painter who was an active member of the Harlem Renaissance. Through Bruce’s memories and narration’s, Perry is taken on a journey to the 1930s, back to the "Niggeratti Manor", the fertile creative home of an earlier generation who were proud, black, gay and unashamed. With growing respect and love for the older man, Perry learns that his struggles are not new, and that the story of the Harlem Renaissance and the figures that moved within it are part of his history too.

With its smoky jazz score , its re-creation of the 30s, and its rich vein of researched story-weaving, Evans should be lauded for bringing black gay – hidden within history - significant artists, into our present-day consciousness. Brother To Brother is a film that is long overdue in the pantheon of gay & lesbian cinema and we are delighted to be able to unveil this film as our special, it really is special, surprise screening.