THAT KID, Presented by Truth to Power

Advance sale tickets end at 4:00pm on July 25. Additional tickets will be available at the door when it opens at 7:00pm.

THAT KID tells the story of a young, gifted Black boy from Nyack Plaza named James. All of his elders do their darndest to help him prepare for life in a system that is predicated on his exploitation rather than designed for his success.

It seems like in our culture a person or community’s monetary wealth is frequently mistaken for their real value as human beings.

Many people probably think about the residents of Nyack Plaza in terms of what they don’t have. Ashley Dawson’s fictional debut THAT KID shows us something else, on both sides of the camera. It is a community creation embodying the kind of value which cannot be bought with money (or entirely displaced through eminent domain, either!!!).

In the cinema verité tradition of BATTLE OF ALGIERS, Ashley Dawson manages to show what life is like with fictional storytelling in a real environment. THAT KID will premier at the LA Underground Railroad Film Festival on April 17, and at the Nyack Center with Rivertown on April 23.

After the film, stay for a discussion with filmmaker Ashley Dawson.

In 2020 Ashley Dawson co-founded Truth 2 Power to bring people together at the intersection of education, community, and film, some of which has documented the under-valued African American history of Nyack. She has also conducted essential journalistic coverage of the deaths of Tina Davis and Sean Harris, in addition to the ongoing issue of police brutality in Rockland County, more broadly. You may have learned from Ashley about film in the African diaspora from the credit bearing course Truth 2 Power offered entitled Honoring African Cultural Continuity in Film. It is now our pleasure to announce the release of her debut as writer/director of a fictional film.

Writer, Director, Exeutive Producer: Ashley Dawson
Producer, Cinematographer, Editor: Brooklyn Demme
Co-Producer: Norris Spotted War Turtle Branham

CAST

“A film that could have settled for being a masterclass in technique, but instead goes deeper, exploring questions of artistry, authorship, legacy.” NPR

“Had The Christophers just been a cross-generational punch-up, the sort of flinty showdown designed to throw off pleasurable sparks, you’d still walk away content. It remains a conduit for two of the best performances you’ll see all year.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

“The Christophers is largely a comedy, but it’s also about all that we gain and lose with age, and about how we sometimes need young people to bring us back to ourselves.” – Stephanie Zacharek, TIME

“Having lost the inspiration that guided him to greatness, Julian is an artist who can no longer paint, and Lori is an artist who has lost all confidence in there being a place for her work in the larger world. For all the undercurrents about fame, commodification, and reputation that flow through The Christophers, at its core is a more plaintive lament about what it feels like to love something that doesn’t love you back.” – Alison Willmore, Vulture

“Go see The Christophers. Show up, and support a tiny, talky experiment that has no relationship to IP or sequels or box-office projection. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s also never, as Lori grudgingly notes about Julian’s work, uninteresting. And in this cultural moment, that’s an authentic win.” – Elizabeth Weitzman, Time Out

“The Christophers is a work of criticism that deftly distinguishes different approaches to criticism.” ­– Justin Chang, The New Yorker 

“Brims with hilarious dialogue, lightly satirical observations of a culture that treats art as a commodity, and satisfying payoffs to a number of story elements planted early on.” – Seth Katz, Slant Magazine

“In the end, this film about artists becomes a work of art in its own right. The more you look at it, the more its many components reveal themselves to you.” – Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap

“Ian McKellen plays Julian Sklar, a sardonic art legend who meets his intellectual match in frank preservationist Lori Butler (Michaela Coel). In a test of wits and wills held mostly in a single-setting, Soderbergh pushes both characters to return to their former passions through philosophical conversations that reflect his own career.” – Robert Daniels, Screen International

“It bats about ideas pertaining to art, commerce, ownership and legacy with dexterous aplomb and boasts two equally superb leads who make the material crackle.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“The Christophers is a talky, at times incredibly funny, comedy drama with plot reversals that make it feel like it’s on the verge of a thriller. It doesn’t end up there, at least not strictly, but it’s unpredictable enough to never make us entirely sure just where it’s heading.” – Benjamin Lee, Guardian

“There’s no room for anything shy of genius in The Christophers, a crackling original drama about artistic legacy in all its facets, directed by Steven Soderbergh , from a script by Ed Solomon (No Sudden Move) and starring two top-notch English actors of wildly different backgrounds and styles, Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, at the top of their respective games.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“With Ian McKellen in superbly crotchety form and Michaela Coel exuding chilly cunning, it’s further proof that Soderbergh remains one of American Cinema’s most inimitable, and adventurous, auteurs. – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast