April 7th was an star-studded night in Atlanta, as RLJ Entertainment and Urban Movie Channel brought out all the stars for their private screening of the upcoming film, “Blackbird”.
Blackbird is a film directed by Patrik-Ian Polk and starring Academy Award winner Mo’Nique, Isaiah Washington and Julian Walker. The film is centered around a choir singing young man in high school struggling with his sexuality in a very conservative town in Mississippi. Production teams, spectators, media personnel, close friends and family came out to the private screening hosted at a packed theater at Midtown Art Cinema. Executive producers Mo’Nique and Sidney Hicks, as well as cast members D. Woods, Torrey Laamar and Nikki Jane sat down alongside moderator V-103’s Ramona Debreaux for a Q&A session about the powerful film.
Also in attendance were comedian Rodney Perry (Bounce TV), WNBA Atlanta Dream forward Angel McCoughtry, Dr. Heavenly Kimes (Bravo’s “Married to Medicine”), Gary Hayes (DISH Nation/“Rickey Smiley Morning Show”), Meelah Williams (singer, TV One’s “R&B Divas Atlanta”), Bobby Valentino, Melissa Knowles (HLN’s “The Daily Share”), comedian Tone X and more. LGBT influencers included Funky Dineva, Gee and Juan Session-Smalls (Gentleman’s Ball), Bishop Oliver Clyde Allen and Rashad Burgess (The Vision Church), Melissa Scott (TRAXX Girls), Jim Farmer (Out On Film Festival) and Jacob Kohinoor (YouTube)
Blackbird will hit select theaters April 24th. You can find out what theaters the film will be playing in here.