The excitement was palpable on the red carpet Tuesday night, Oct. 9, at the Apollo theater! Journalists, filmmaker Barry Jenkins and his cast and film fans in general descended on the historic venue for the United States premiere of the film adaptation of the James Baldwin literary classic “If Beale Street Could Talk” as part of the New York Film Festival. It was the first time in its 56 year history that the New York Film Festival debuted one of its films off the Lincoln Center campus.
Kamilah Forbes, the Apollo Theater’s executive producer, said, “The New York Film Festival already planned to premiere this film as part of their film festival and they started to explore having a film outside the Lincoln Center, so naturally they reached out to the Apollo and once we got into conversation, it made the most sense.”
The Apollo Theater also took steps to ensure that Harlem residents would take part. “We also wanted to make sure that Harlem was represented in the house, so we worked with the filmmakers and the festival to make sure to give out tickets to community groups in Harlem,” said Forbes.
Jonelle Procope, president of the Apollo Theater, added, “I’m so excited to have this particular film premiering here. We were just talking to Kent from the film society and I think it’s the beginning of some other collaborations, which will be really wonderful.”
Kent Jones, director of the New York Film Festival, said that having programming off-site had come up before, but this premiere was the first time all the elements came together to make the most sense. “It’s the first time we’ve ever been really off-site,” said Jones. “I mean, we’ve done stuff across the street, but that’s not really the same thing. I think the reason we’re doing it is we’ve always looked for a compelling reason to go off-site and never found it, but then with this movie when Annapurna raised the possibility of doing it at the Apollo, we sealed it up right there.”
Annapurna Pictures is distributing “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
The film’s auteur, Barry Jenkins enthused, “It’s really wonderful. When you make a film, I think you sometimes have an ideal audience and an ideal place to first show the film and the book was about Harlem and we made the film here. I can’t think of a more perfect fusion of audience and venue. ‘Beale Street’ is the duality, of a lush, pure romance paired with an angry protest novel. The beauty of the source material is that Balwin paints both sides of the story with the same brush. Making the film was really challenging but really rewarding at the same time.”
A love story set in Harlem, “If Beale Street Could Talk” features the timeless themes about family and romantic love. It also features an unfortunate ubiquity of American society: the drama is also set against the backdrop of the prison system as the main character, Tish (Kiki Layne) tries to get her fiancé Alonzo (Stephan James) out of prison. The film also stars Regina King (“Seven Seconds”), Teyonah Parris (“Survivor’s Remorse”), Colman Domingo (“Lincoln”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta,” “Widows”), Aunjanue Ellis (“Quantico”), Diego Luna (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) and Ed Skrein (“Deadpool”). They were all out in full force on the red carpet in support of the film.
Recalling the first time she screened the film, Parris, who plays Tish’s sister Ernestine, said, “I just remember thinking, ‘Wow Barry and Baldwin are giving us this ode to Black love.’ The relationship and the chemistry between Tish and Alonzo is palpable. It’s beautiful and you feel like every frame is just beautiful the way that Barry treated us with such care.”
Like the stars of Jenkins’ breakout film, “Moonlight,” Layne is a relative newcomer and she shared on the red carpet that her getting the part of Tish was something of a fluke. She said, “Everyone just had so much respect for this project, it just created a special climate. I found out ‘Beale Street’ was casting because one of my friends was auditioning for the male lead and he told me about it. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later, that I went out for it.”
Asked what stands out for her, Layne said, “Just the power of being around such supportive people. Even beyond the filming process I can still reach out to those people for instruction, guidance and all that,”
The warmth among all of the cast members was electric and very evident as they got together for a few group photos on the red carpet. There were hugs and kisses aplenty as they sorted themselves out for the shots.
Ebony Obsidian, who is so far best known for her turn on Netflix’s “Master of None,” plays Alonzo’s sister Adrienne. Looking resplendent in a deep yellow-gold number, Obsidian shared her thoughts on working on the film, her first feature.
“I just knew I had to be a part of it,” she said. “It’s just such a timely film. It’s just so relevant to all that’s going on in America right now. It’s a beautiful story about love, about trust. It’s about family. There’s so much love and support within the structure of this film and everyone involved in it. That was something that I wanted to be a part of. Being on that set, there were people I grew up watching as a younger girl, it was such a beautiful experience to see it all come together.”