You may remember last year when I tried to get a screening of Driving While Black to happen in Tampa with all the success of a legless dog trying to bury a bone on a frozen lake. While I may have failed to get this unique film in front of an audience on my own, it is finally on its way to the masses via video-on-demand.
Starting on February 1st, DWB will be available to stream in the US.
Be sure to also check out my interview with DWB‘s Sheila Tejada. We spoke about the film and the #MeToo movement.
Synopsis
Based on the real-life experiences of writer and lead actor Dominique Purdy, Driving While Black is an arresting film that explores Purdy’s real life experiences growing up as a person of color in LA and his run ins with police. With February Black History Month, honoring the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout U.S. history.
Dmitri is a pizza guy who would rather smoke weed and suffer for his art, but his mom and his girl won’t stop nagging him to get a real job. When he’s offered a gig mouthing off to tourists behind the wheel of a Hollywood “star tour” bus, it looks like everyone might get what they want. Trouble is, our man can’t seem to step out the door to get to the interview without endless complications: busted radiators, simple weed scores gone sideways and LAPD cruisers seemingly everywhere.
Dmitri’s skill at going unnoticed by cops is honed by painful experiences growing up Black in L.A., but even his keen survival instincts won’t save him from the week from hell. With a jovial swagger to its walking pace, Driving While Black is half comedy of errors and half hard-bitten realism, tucked into a sly treatise on 21st-century over-policing.
Syxx Sense Media 