BLACK MEN UNIFYING BLACK MEN SHORTS: The Black Mr. Rodgers, Momma, Joe Barry Carroll, Erlkönig, Man Pants: A Game of Chance

The Black Mr. Rodgers

United States (2023) - Director: Gerald Hamilton

MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE

The Black Mr. Rodgers is a documentary film that follows the work of Joseph Williams, who is the Founder and Executive Director of a Chicago based organization called Mr. Dad's Father's Club. Joseph's organization aims to keep fathers active in their children's lives by going into the classrooms and having fathers from the community read to the kids. Often seen reading books to the children in a red cardigan, he was given the nickname "The Black Mr. Rodgers". 

This film documents Joseph's journey to enrich his community while also highlighting his rough upbringing, and current struggle to keep his program alive.

Joe Barry Carroll

United States (2023) - Director: Ethan Payne

MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE

An intimate profile of seven-foot-tall Joe Barry Carroll, born the 10th of 13 children in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and raised in Denver, Colorado, who became a first overall NBA draft pick and All-Star, and is now a wealth advisor, philanthropist, author, and artist. Carroll’s reflections on playing basketball, writing, painting, and the responsibility of helping others are entwined with a quilt inherited from his father at the age of ten.

Momma

United States (2023) - Director: Jeffery Jackson

BALTIMORE PREMIERE

Exploring the relationship between a growing Lemarcus and his mother Denise, as she has molded him to become a man through life experiences in an African American household.

Man Pants: A Game of Chance

Unted States (2023) - Director: Aron "Teo" Lee 

MARYLAND PREMIERE

Man Pants: A Game of Chance is a 35-year non-fiction love story packed into a short documentary with a narrative set to music. This is a story about a young man’s journey to become a better version of himself inspired by the friendship, love, loss and a set of choices that could change everything.

This humorous, origin story took place at Hampton University, a Historically Black College in Virginia where two people from the northeast (CT, MA) met completely by chance. Man Pants IS NOT a “love at first sight” story because NOTHING happened quickly. The gift of time had a different plan in mind.

Erlkönig

United States (2023) - Morgan Middleton and Charlie Driscoll

MARYLAND PREMIERE

In a powerful exploration of racial and health disparities, classical music takes center stage when a father and son confront the ominous figure of Der Erlkönig, the whisperer of death.