The Price She Paid (1924)

From the cinematography to the script to the acting, Sorry, Baby is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year.

Everyone needs a BFF and a "wing person" like Yumi (Chloris Li). Li brings the "straight person" persona, literally and figuratively balancing James Aaron Oh's perfectly timed comedic delivery as the unlucky-in-love.

Paris is Burning elevated drag and ballroom into the public consciousness and permanently impacted LGBT culture. However, the performers featured in the documentary didn't reap the rewards of their visibility.

In Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986), we follow the love life of powerful female protagonist Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) and explore the relationship dynamics she has with her partners. She sees three men simultaneously: Greer Childs, (John Canada Terrell) Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), and Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks). Though an 80’s film, She’s Gotta Have It is surprisingly progressive with its themes of female sexuality, although at some points in the film it is handled clumsily. Overall Nola is an incredibly compelling character especially for modern women, as we as a society acknowledge female sensuality more and more without the negative stigma.

Stand and Deliver is an inspirational classic from 1988 starring Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, and his class of rag tag students in East Los Angeles. It’s the story of how a new teacher shows a motley group of students in the inner city with backgrounds as gang members, dishwashers, and mechanics — the power of self-determination. He teaches the teenagers to believe in themselves through algebra and calculus.

Welcome to a special episode of the Incluvie Movie Highlights. This summer we held the Incluvie Short Film Festival. The film festival discovers and brings to light some outstanding short films starring main characters from diverse backgrounds, who are often overlooked in Hollywood. The filmmakers and actors from the 3 winning films came in and talked about their process and what it was like to make the film.