Medicine For Melancholy
Feb 20 - Mar 01, 2009
(Barry Jenkins, USA, 2008, DigiBeta, 87 min)
Director Barry Jenkins in person February 23-26!
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM and Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine
Barry Jenkins' debut feature begins one morning in San Francisco, in the comically awkward aftermath of a one-night stand between two African-American twenty-somethings (The Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac and newcomer Tracey Heggins). After a sobering cup of coffee, they part, but within hours, the guy contrives to track the girl down. His ingenuity and charm pay off when he convinces her to spend the rest of the day with him. As they walk the city streets, visiting some of its cultural landmarks, they learn more about each other, discussing their circumstances and their differing attitudes towards issues of class and identity while living in a city that, as a consequence of its gentrification, has seen its black population dwindle. This is American independent cinema at its finest, and Jenkins has emerged as a talent worthy of celebration.
Featuring the music of Tom Waits, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Au Revior Simone, Canoe, Saturday Looks Good To Me, White Denim, Wyatt Cenac and many many more!
"It is an exciting debut, and a film that, without exaggeration or false modesty, finds interest and feeling in the world just as it is." -NY Times
"Smart, funny, and visually gorgeous, with the intimacy of a relationship drama and the resonance of a city portrait." -NY Magazine
"Visually more sophisticated than the bulk of features to yet come out of the new wave of DIY independent American cinema, narratively smoother and yet still boundless in mold-breaking ambition, Medicine for Melancholy offers a self-contained rebuttal to claims that precious, naturalistic dramas about the existential dilemmas of hipster singles are exclusively a white man’s game.” —Karina Longworth, Spout
Watch the trailer: