IndieSeen Pic 'O" the day: Brother to Brother

First time Writer/Director Rodney Evans takes us on a journey of self discovery, racial and sexual intolerance spanning both modern day and the Harlem renaissance of the 1920's.

Brother to Brother focuses on Perry (Anthony Mackie) a gay Brooklyn artist who has recently been kicked out of his home by an intolerant and homophobic father, Perry eventually develops a friendship with an older man he meets at a homeless shelter, Bruce Nugent (Roger Robinson)who is also gay and regals him with tails of past struggles and self assertions that he had to go through as a gay writer coming up during the Harlem Renaissance.

The film is bold and ambitious in its attempt to interweave the experiences that perry is going through in modern times with the ones that Bruce had to endure in the past (Via black and white flashback scenes), essentially leading perry to a conclusion, that his is not a unique struggle, that there have been many before him who have had to deal with the trials of being a young gay man, specifically a gay black man.

Rodney Evans seems to have alot he is attempting to accomplish within his first feature and at times those messages he tries to convey get huddled and a bit sloppy, but one must definitely give credit to Evans for taking a subject matter that is very rarely tackled on film and managing to execute it fluidly enough so that it remains engaging.

The performances, Specifically from Mackie are nuanced and sensitively portrayed.

for a first time production Brother to Brother is very impressive and it leaves us with anticipation for further releases from Evans.