NINE RIDES by Matthew Cherry November 25, 2016 *Opening Night - Reception at 6:00 p.m.* Post screening discussion with Director Matthew Cherry (via skype)
The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Seattle
Matthew Cherry’s second feature film and the first to be shot entirely on the iPhone 6s, follows a black Uber driver, played by Dorian Missick, who reflects on life and relationships on New Year’s Eve, as he picks up and drops off a number of passengers in Los Angeles. Each passenger has a struggle, or story, that underscores his own, and leads him to an inevitable fit of paranoia and worry about the relationship he has with his fiancee.
In "9 Rides," each ride is a meditation on relationships, on patience, and also on fear. Cherry creates a deft character study in the containment of a car, under bright and low light, and atop bumpy streets. This elevates the tension. In an early scene, the Uber driver is pulled over by an aggressive white police officer. The police officer presumes guilt based on the drivers blackness alone, and each attempt the character makes to disprove that assumption brings him closer to the brutality we regularly see captured on cell phone video.
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2713822