“The Knife explores what choice and safety look like for Black people in America. Asomugha, who co-wrote the screenplay with his executive producer Mark Duplass, tackles these familiar themes with a visceral frankness. He includes scenes, especially near the end, that highlight with a chilling matter-of-factness how quickly a life can unravel.”

“The end of DADT was predictably messy and the film, in fast succession, explains how the politics of the moment demanded urgent repeal of it before Democrats lost power after the 2010 election. But for those 17 years, the military essentially demanded its membership from top to bottom to conceal a piece of themselves...

As much as Serving in Secret is about the fight for one piece of LGBTQ history, it’s a broader work that cuts at how Washington really works, and it’s not always as easy to find heroes as most would think.”

“Two other [interviews] featured in the film are retired Army Col. Stewart Bornhoft and retired Navy Capt. April Heinze. While on active duty, Bornhoft was featured in a centerfold with several other LGBTQ+ military officers in a 2007 issue of The Advocate. Heinze read that issue, which inspired her to come out and get involved in the equality movement.

Bornhoft and Heinze ended up working together on the repeal effort with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, along with Carpenter, who emphasizes at the end of the film that while equality was realized, the struggle isn’t finished. “Always be prepared to fight,” Carpenter warns. “Because it’s never over.””

“The film showing, which was organized by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, took place at the auditorium of the recently opened John Hopkins University Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.

Two of the leading figures in the film’s production, U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former Marine Corps fighter pilot Thomas Carpenter, and his nephew, filmmaker Jonathan Baker, who served as producer and director of the film, appeared as guest speakers on stage following the showing of the film.

A discussion with the two, which included questions from the audience, was moderated by Ryan Bos, executive director of D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance.

Moving and sometimes highly emotional on-camera interviews with Carpenter make up a significant part of the film, which focuses on his personal story as a gay man who had to hide his sexual orientation during his distinguished tenure as a military officer. ”

“EXCLUSIVE: Aldis Hodge (Black Adam) and Lauren E. Banks (City on a Hill) are the latest additions to the cast of The Dutchman, the psychological thriller based on the Obie Award-winning play by Amiri Baraka, which began filming under a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement in September.

The actors join an ensemble that includes André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz and Stephen McKinley Henderson, as we were first to tell you. Emmy nominee Andre Gaines (The One and Only Dick Gregory) is directing from his screenplay written with filmmaker Qasim Basir.

The Dutchman‘s producers are Gaines and Emmy nominee Jonathan T. Baker (Sylvie’s Love, The Banker). The film is financed by Gaines’ multi-platform media company, Cinemation Studios, and E.O.A Productions, which previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Gaines’ Showtime doc The One and Only Dick Gregory. Nicole A. Parke and Enoch K. Osei-Acheampong, co-founders and executive board members of E.O.A. Productions, are serving as exec producers. Kyle Townsend and Matt Rachamkin are also exec producing, alongside Joshua Blum and Han West for Washington Square Films, with UTA Independent Film Group repping sales.”

“EXCLUSIVE: André Holland (Passing), Kate Mara (Black Mirror), Zazie Beetz (The Harder They Fall) and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Beau Is Afraid) are set to star in The Dutchman, a psychological thriller based on the Obie Award-winning play by Amiri Baraka that has landed a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement.”

“If the film’s original songs are still the best potted history of the Jamaican music of the era, the added numbers—whether mined from the same rich musical terrain of the time (it’s my long-held contention that, measured by either population or square mile, Jamaica’s musical contribution to the world is rivaled by no other country on earth) or conjured by Parks—only build on that accolade, and they’re rendered in a spectrum that ranges only from breathtaking to awe-inspiring.”