Programmer's Note

Seventeen-year-old Alike (pronounced A-leekay and perfectly played by Adepero Oduye) is a young woman who exists in two worlds. In one, she lives harmoniously in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighbourhood with her middle-class, conservative parents, Audrey (Kim Wayans) and Arthur (Charles Parnell), and her younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse). She is a traditionally feminine, obedient daughter who does well in school. The other side of Alike’s life is spent with her out-of-the-closet best friend Laura (Pernell Walker), dancing in gay clubs, embracing her nascent identity as a lesbian and seeking her first serious girlfriend. It’s inevitable that these worlds will collide.

Audrey is an intense, hands-on mother, ambitious for her children and determined that their behaviour be considered impeccable in the eyes of her church-based community. Concerned that Alike is in need of better influences, Audrey introduces her to a colleague’s daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis). Upon discovering Alike’s secret life, Bina exhibits no judgment, and the two rapidly become close friends. Gaining confidence and fervently wishing to live openly without shame, Alike is impatient to disclose the truth but ultimately unsure about fully revealing herself to her family — until circumstances force her hand.

Pariah is about much more than deciding whether to come out to the world. There isn’t a parent alive who won’t identify with Audrey’s anxieties or world-weary Arthur’s soft spot for his oldest daughter. And who among us has not deeply feared the revelation of a secret? It is the specificity of the story and characters in Pariah that results in the film’s universal appeal and its wide-ranging emotional power.

Pariah is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees’ award-winning short of the same title, and cinematographer Bradford Young was awarded the Excellence in Cinematography Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. While well-deserved accolades for the film abound, it is in the creation of Alike — intelligent, thoughtful, dignified and perceptive — that Rees has made a lasting contribution to contemporary cinema.