kweliTV, the ad-free SVOD service for global independent Black cinema, has released their September 2020 slate of new titles, including MISSED CONNECTIONS, a short film starring and executive produced by POSE star Angelica Ross, Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury Mention documentary LET THE FIRE BURN and French coming of age drama and New York Times critics pick ELZA.
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In addition, kweliTV is now available on DistroTV, an independent free streaming television service catering to multicultural, globally-minded viewers in the US, Canada, and the U.K.
“The slate of titles released this month on kweliTV showcases the diverse stories that make up the global black experience-stories about our struggle, beauty and resiliency.” said DeShuna Spencer, Founder & CEO of kweliTV. “In a time when people are hungry for more substantive black content, I’m elated that we have a new distribution partner in DistroTV to further amplify the work of our 300+ content creators.”
“We’re proud to be working with kweliTV to bring their impressive slate of programming to DistroTV. We have a diverse, global audience looking for stories that reflect and celebrate their own experiences, and deepens their worldview,” said Navdeep Saini, CEO of DistroTV.
kweliTV is also available to stream via the kweliTV website, Comcast, Roku, Amazon Fire, AppleTV, iOS, GooglePlay/Android and Chromecast. The fast-growing service’s subscribers have increased by over 126% since June 2020.
Founded by journalist, filmmaker and entrepreneur DeShuna Spencer, kweliTV’s diverse slate of films, series, documentaries and children’s programming showcases the rich history and diverse culture of the global Black community with new award-winning and film festival-vetted films and documentaries added the first of every month.
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Full list of September 2020 new releases:
AS ABOVE: Loosely based on the 2nd Law of the Universe; The Principle of Correspondence, “As Above” tells the story of The Earth Plane returning home, to find herself intuitively drawn to a presence she can’t ignore. Alone, The Earth Plane follows her instincts through a twisty windy hallway looking to connect an alluring call to her.
DREAMSTATES: Equal parts love story, road movie, and Americana, DREAMSTATES tells the haunting tale of two wayward souls discovering their love for one another in their dreams and reality while touring the United States with some of the most pivotal figures of the Afro-Punk movement – Sultry, sensual, and quixotic, an underground portrait of America: haunted and hollow.
ELZA: ELZA is a riveting, deeply personal story about the emotional journey of a young Parisian woman returning home to her native island of Guadeloupe. Bernadette has tried hard to give her daughter everything. She is thrilled when Elza, the first college graduate in the family, completes her master’s degree. But Elza breaks her mother’s heart by running off to Guadeloupe in search of a
distant childhood memory: the father she barely remembers.
HESAT & HAPI CARTOON SERIES: Join Hesat & Hapi as they learn their ABC’s, 123’s, Colors and more!
LET THE FIRE BURN: On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and the group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied rowhouse. TV cameras captured the conflagration that quickly escalated–and resulted in the tragic deaths of eleven people (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes. It was only later discovered that authorities decided to “…let the fire burn.”
MISSED CONNECTIONS: Two strangers meet and form a bond at a festival, but they forget to exchange contact info. As they search for one another and through viral posts, they navigate their careers, lives, and society’s expectations of them as Black, female, and transgender.
PANAMA DREAMS: Panama Dreams transports us on the modern day search of the filmmaker for descendants of an ancestor who left Barbados in the early 1900s to build the Panama Canal – one of the seven wonders of the modern world. She uncovers the complex history of that migration and troubling issues of race and discrimination that faced the West Indians on the Canal Zone and their descendants to the present day.
SILVIA IN THE WAVES: Noa struggles to honor the identity of his recently deceased parent while his mother tries to uphold the appearance of a conventional family. Grief and fantasy entwine to reveal the complex relationship between history and erasure, identity and memory.
STREET FIGHTING MEN: In a rapidly changing America where mass inequality and dwindling opportunity have devastated the black working class, three Detroit men must fight to build something lasting for themselves and future generations. Shot over three years in the neighborhoods of Detroit, Street Fighting Men is a story of hard work, faith and manhood in a community that never settles for defeat.
THE DESTINY OF LESSER ANIMALS: A Ghanaian police inspector embarks upon a dangerous, crime-laden journey to realize his ultimate dream – to escape the ghosts of his past and return to America. Infusing the policier genre with West African cinematic traditions and a neorealist emphasis on everyday life, the film becomes the story of one man’s journey to find his purpose in the context of post-colonial Ghanaian independence.
THE LAST TREE: After growing up in quiet, rural Lincolnshire, teenager Femi struggles with unfamiliar surroundings and cultural differences when he moves in with his mother in London.
