Directed by Jato Smith
COMEDY
This film is available from November 27-30, 2020. To watch or vote for this film please click on the orange “TICKETS” button below and purchase a ticket for BLOCK 9.
Synopsis
According to the Unofficial Etiquette Book for Blacks, everything is open for consideration, but homosexuality and interracial dating. Kevin unwittingly learns this difficult lesson when he introduces his significant other to childhood best friends.
Jato Smith is a director, writer, and award-winning cinematographer. Since attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program, he has directed and/or lensed several features and short film narrative projects, including the award-nominated web series “The Temp Life” and “The Hayley Project.” He has also directed, shot and produced countless hours of docu-series television for networks such as Discovery Channel, Investigation Discovery, MTV, TLC, A&E, Animal Planet, History, Pivot, and Lifetime Movie Network.
What excited me so much about TABOO was the opportunity to examine traditional African-American male perspectives and expectations for friendship, love, and acceptance not just through edgy humor, but also through earnest heartache – certainly, two of my favorite experiences to indulge through filmmaking.
While on its surface, Adrian’s story affords us plenty of laughs, it also pushes us deeper, past our flawed, armored, superficial views to find our compassionate, vulnerable, more human selves. And ultimately, it invites us to choose who we will be going forward. I was both humbled and uplifted by this story and honored to be involved in helping to tell it.
