Urbanworld 2020: Cinematic Cerebrations

By Dan Skip Allen

Here are a handful of the films I saw at the Urbanworld 2020 Film Festival, which gives a voice to directors who haven't been in the spotlight before. They have all been telling very interesting and important stories in all different genres and styles. Some of them can be found right now on HBO Max and Amazon Prime. The rest will be available soon.

Charm City Kings

Based on a documentary, Charm City Kings depicts the lives of three young men who want to be somebody in life. They don't want to just be working stiffs in a downtrodden section of Baltimore, Maryland. Mouse (Jahi Di'Allo Winston), Lamont (Donielle T. Hansley Jr.), and Sweartagawd (Kezii Curtis) are childhood friends. Like most kids their age and creed, these guys have a hard time adjusting. They only really enjoy themselves when there riding their bikes through the streets of the neighborhoods. Mouse wants more, though. He wants to join the Midnight Clique, a dirt bike crew that roams the Baltimore streets. The boys see the fast money that comes with riding with the Midnight Clique, so the lines between the straight and narrow are blurred.

All In: The Fight for Democracy

Over the decades, this country has had its fair share of voter fraud and even downright intimidation at the polls, mostly in the southern states but sometimes out West. Voter suppression is an old trick by people intending to fraud a particular county, district, or state. Fine print put into laws that have been passed over the years is a very frequent trick to cause voter fraud. Amendments 14, 15, 16, and 19 were very hard to get put in the constitution. All voter laws. The country suppressed different groups for many years. Lisa Cortez and Liz Garbus decided that they were going to focus on one particular person to focus their energy and vision on: Stacy Abrams, who ran for Governor in 2018. The film explores how voter suppression affected that election and how government officials running for office shouldn't be in charge of said election. This led her to make a concession speech mainly focused on voter suppression. This was the start for her becoming an activist against voter suppression not just in Georgia, but around the country.

The Water Man

Actors becoming directors isn't anything new to the film industry. Over the years actors have delved into the realm of directing. Some with great success, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, and Robert Redford, and others not so well. With The Water Man, David Oyelowo takes his turn in the director's chair. It is a relative success, but not overwhelmingly so. Gunner (Lonnie Chavis) is a young man dealing with a sick mother (Rosario Dawson) and a father (David Oyelowo) trying to keep his house and family together despite his wife's illness. Lonnie hears about a mythic character named The Water Man that has found a way to escape death. He sets out on an adventure to find out about The Water Man. During his adventure, he meets a young girl named Jo (Amiah Miller) who helps him along the way. 

The Donut King

The Donut King, Ted Ngoy, grew up in Cambodia as a kid and as a young man, the Khmer Rouge took over his country and forced all the people out of the cities and into internment camps. Ted and his family were able to escape to America where they were housed in different internment camps ran by the military. Cambodians were able to leave the camps if they could get a family to sponsor them. Ted and his family got sponsored by a church, its minister, and his family. This was able to help Ted and his family make a life for themselves in America 

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The Urbanworld Film Festival which ran September 23-27.

One of the writers from disappointment media worked on a film playing as part of the Dances with Films Festival, but they were not involved with the writing of this review.