Pariah

Director: Dee Rees
Writer: Dee Rees
Cast: Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker, Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell, Aasha Davis
Theatrical Release Date: December 28, 2011 9:38 AM
Criticwire: B+
On The Web Film Website IMDB Entry

Synopsis: At the club, the music thumps, go-go dancers twirl, shorties gyrate on the dance floor while studs play it cool, and adorably naive 17-year-old Alike takes in the scene with her jaw dropped in amazement. Meanwhile, her buddy Laura, in between macking the ladies and flexing her butch bravado, is trying to help Alike get her cherry popped. This is Alike’s first world. Her second world is calling on her cell to remind her of her curfew. On the bus ride home to Brooklyn, Alike sheds her baseball cap and polo shirt, puts her earrings back in, and tries to look like the feminine, obedient girl her conservative family expects. With a spectacular sense of atmosphere and authenticity, "Pariah" takes us deep and strong into the world of an intelligent butch teenager trying to find her way into her own. Debut director Dee Rees leads a splendid cast and crafts a pitch-perfect portrait that stands unparalleled in American cinema. [Synopsis courtesy of the Sundance Institute]

trailers & clips

Interviews

SUNDANCE FUTURES | "Pariah" Actress Adepero Oduye

Dee Rees' feature directorial debut "Pariah," starring relative newcomer Adepero Oduye, earned a standing ovation in its opening-night premiere. A coming-of-age drama that centers on Alike (Oduye), a 17-year-old girl coming to terms with her sexuality, "Pariah" is the ty...
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FUTURES | 'Pariah' Writer/Director Dee Rees

Writer/director Dee Rees came into this year's Sundance Film Festival as a relative unknown and emerged as a filmmaker to contend with.
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Meet the 2011 ND/NF Filmmakers: "Pariah" Director Dee Rees

If Alike, a sassy 17-year-old New Yorker, knows anything it’s that she’s gay and she badly wants a girlfriend. However, there’s a problem—namely her middle-class Brooklyn family. Her mother is a church-goer; her father, a detective, is absent most of the time; and her younger sister is, well, a youn...
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Honor Roll 2011 | 'Pariah' Breakout Adepero Oduye

Dee Rees' feature directorial debut "Pariah," starring relative newcomer Adepero Oduye, kicked the 2011 Sundance Film Festival off right by earning a standing ovation on the event's opening night. A coming-of-age drama that centers on Alike (Oduye), a 17-year-old girl coming to ter...
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