August the First (2007)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Lanre Olabisi

Writers:

Shawn Alexander (writer)
Lanre Olabisi (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

An unwelcome homecoming.

Plot:

The party to celebrate Tunde Ibirinde's graduation is the backdrop for a far more momentous occasion: the return of estranged father Dipo, after over a decade of absence. Each family member must face their feelings before they face Dipo. |

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ian Alsup	...	Tunde
Dennis Rubin Green	...	Dipo (as D. Rubin Green)
Kerisse Hutchinson	...	Simisola
Joy Merriweather	...	Rhonda
Sean Phillips	...	Ade
Gloria Sauve	...	Grandma
Monique Gramby	...	Janine
Robert McKay	...	Alex
A. Toni Sterrett	...	Elsa
Geronimo Frias	...	Boris
Yaritza Pizarro	...	Louisa
Acantha Lang	...	Vicky
Joshua Percy	...	Lex
Robert Aviles	...	Jesus
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nicky Arezu Akmal	...	Party Guest
Christian Angelo	...	Party Guest
Michael Arisohn	...	Party Guest
Hamsheb B. Banton	...	Party Guest
Adalena Baxter	...	Party Guest
Sara Booth	...	Party Guest
Sara Both	...	Party Guest
Kimberly Capers	...	Party Guest
Leslie A. Carter	...	Party Guest
Eric Casanova	...	Mark
John Cejnowski	...	Party Guest
Kira M. Cejnowski	...	Party Guest
Lisa Cejnowski	...	Party Guest
Casandra Charles	...	Party Guest
Myles Davis	...	Party Guest
Stephen Davis	...	Party Guest
Terry Frederick	...	Party Guest
Heather Fritz	...	Party Guest
Jose Gihells	...	Party Guest
Simon Gomez	...	Party Guest
Timothy Grant	...	Party Guest
Margarita Gumbs	...	Party Guest
Miltina Hayes	...	Party Guest
Hattie Heyward	...	Party Guest
Rasham A. Hill	...	Party Guest
Chandra Ishmael	...	Party Guest
Matthew Ishmael	...	Party Guest
Nicholas Ishmael	...	Party Guest
Rennie Ishmael	...	Party Guest
Jessica Jackson	...	Party Guest
Maarquita C. Johnson	...	Party Guest
Kimberly Jones	...	Party Guest
Shaya Jones	...	Party Guest
Shayna Kessler	...	Party Guest
Taewoo Lim	...	Party Guest
Sandra Marzocchi	...	Party Guest
C. McKay	...	Party Guest
Marlene Michille	...	Party Guest
Laura del Aguila Murphy	...	Party Guest
Dr. Gail Olabisi	...	Peggy
Ronke Olabisi	...	Party Guest
Toke Olabisi	...	Party Guest
Millette Pauley	...	Party Guest
Ashley Pennington	...	Party Guest
Adrien Percy Jr.	...	Party Guest
Mark G. Phillips	...	Party Guest
Agueda Ramirez	...	Party Guest
David Rivera	...	Party Guest
Joseph Rodrigues	...	Party Guest
Barry Stephen	...	Party Guest
Catherine Strube	...	Party Guest
William Sutphin	...	Miner
Keisha Tillis	...	Party Guest (as Keisha Jones)
Keith Trent	...	Party Guest
Randy Tucker	...	Party Guest
Denise Turner	...	Party Guest
Jaron Turner	...	Party Guest
Aileen Wagefeld	...	Party Guest
Eboni White	...	Party Guest
Richard Williams	...	Party Guest

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

Nigeria | Sweden | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

New Jersey, USA

Company:

L Train Productions

Trivia:

The entire film was shot at the house the director grew up in - his mother's house.

August the First on Reel 13

AUGUST THE FIRST, the Reel 13 Indie from September 13th, is problematic right from the get go. It's hard to dig your teeth into early on, particularly because the characters come at you fast and furious, introduced without any real establishing. I appreciate the attempt at efficiency, but without getting some sense of the characters we are dealing with (and their relationship to one another), nothing has any resonance and it's hard to follow what's going on. It's almost as if the first thirty minutes of the film are awash.

Eventually, the intelligent, careful viewer will start to understand the characters, their desires and motivations. By then, we are knee deep in an immature melodrama, with an accentuation on the "melo". The story revolves around the graduation party for Tunde, fresh off his college degree. For his party, Tunde surprises his family by inviting his estranged father from Africa to the party. The family is not pleased and then, yelling and tears naturally ensue. The way that director Lanre Olabisi piles on the pain causes the film to depart from the world of the real (the mother is a drunk and recovering from breast cancer, the sister is pregnant, the aunt is a slut who had an affair with the father – get my drift?). Olabisi tries to combat that by employing an ultra-shaky hand-held technique to add a vitality to the film, but it doesn't remotely mesh with the soap opera leanings of the narrative. If Olabisi wanted to tell this story, I think he needed to embrace the melodrama a la Douglas Sirk and stylize it accordingly.

Then again, CRY FUNNY HAPPY, a film that I loved, has some melodramatic elements and also uses a hand-held camera. The big difference though is the acting. In CRY FUNNY HAPPY, the actors are raw and honest. Here, they seem untrained and are mostly over-the-top and not very believable (Sean Philips and Kerisse Hutchison are the strongest members of the ensemble as the older brother and sister of Tunde). The most intriguing thing about the film is the father character, who shows up at the party unexpectedly. In spite of the actor lumbering around in the character's shoes (D. Rubin Green does not seem very comfortable in the role, particularly in terms of movement – though his accent is believable), he manages to come across as somewhat likable, even though the majority of the family distrusts him greatly. He is a very complex potential villain. His actions are interesting and seem to belie his statements and yet, his manner suggests that his intentions are pure and true. And so there is suspense in trying to determine why the father is really in town and if he really wants to reconnect. There are layers here and this is what the film needed to exploit even further.

However, as the film starts to build this interesting mystery amidst the schmaltz, it then turns around and betrays its audience by ending abruptly. I've always said that I don't need closure, but I do require an ending, if you are able to see the difference. There is not enough of a climax in AUGUST THE FIRST to earn the right to end when it did, which is just another of many amateur attributes that add up to make the film a great disappointment.