Just two weeks after premiering at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, “The Hate U Give” based on Angie Thomas’ novel was selected as the closing film for this year’s 22nd annual Urbanworld Film Festival in New York City.
The festival hosted a special screening of the film at the AMC 25 movie theater in New York City on Saturday (September 22nd), which included director George Tillman Jr., and cast members Amandla Stenberg and Algee Smith in attendance.
The film centers on the character of Starr Carter (played by Stenberg), a young high school student who after witnessing the murder of her childhood best friend Khalil (played by Smith), must decide whether to stay silent about the incident or take action.
“You gotta be true to yourself, and speak up and say something. That’s what the movie is about — having a voice. Starr goes through identification issues. She’s code switched between two worlds. Be who you are, don’t be afraid of it, and being who you are is gonna lead to other bigger and better things.” the film’s director George Tillman Jr. told The Knockturnal in regards to what advice he would give to young men and women who may find themselves in the same situation as the main characters in the film.
Tillman further went on to discuss what he learned about his directorial abilities from working on the film saying, “To trust my instinct, be authentic, come out instinctively and trust yourself. If you got something you want to tell [a story], sometimes your best instincts are in your heart and that’s what I did for this film.”
In speaking with Algee Smith about what parts stuck with him after filming he stated, “Other than the obvious part … the death scene I’m gonna go on record and say this: Russell Hornsby he kills it as [Maverick] the dad, that stuck with me that passion he had when giving The Black Panther things to live by, that stuck with me. I went home and it still hits me to this day.”
Following the screening Ava DuVernay who took a break from directing the upcoming Netflix limited series based on the Central Park Five case, moderated a Q&A with Stenberg, Tillman and Smith. The Hate U Give will be released in select movie theaters on October 5th and nationwide on October 19th.
