Hull Independent Cinema: MONSTERS AND MEN

Hull Independent Cinema presents: MONSTERS AND MEN
Reinaldo Marcus Green | 2018 | USA | Cert 15 | 96 mins

Synopsis
One night, in front of a bodega in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighbourhood, Manny Ortega witnesses a white police officer wrongfully gun down a neighbourhood street hustler, and Manny films the incident on his phone. Now he’s faced with a dilemma: release the video and bring unwanted exposure to himself and his family, or keep the video private and be complicit in the injustice?

With a deep sense of humanity and a deft directorial hand, Reinaldo Marcus Green smartly reformulates the traditional construction of “protagonist” to magnify the power of perspective. Green tells the story of how the footage affects the lives of three upstanding men in Bed-Stuy–a young father striving to support his new family, an African American cop dealing with the fallout of his colleague’s mistake, and a star high school athlete who becomes politicized by the incident. Each man is very different, but they equally feel the urgency of the question they must all face: should I take moral action or remain safely on the sidelines? Green provokes viewers to ask themselves the same question.

Featuring John David Washington, Anthony Ramos, Kelvin Harrison Jr

Awards and Reviews
Winner, Special Jury Prize – Sundance Film Festival
Toronto Intl Film Festival, Zurich Film Festival, Leeds Intl Film Festival Official Selections

“MONSTERS AND MEN offers neither unalloyed despair nor implausible hope. It’s about the way people of colour live now, moving through the streets with passion, purpose and one eye on the rear-view mirror.” – NPR

“It’s left to the actors… to keep us close, and not one of them shirks the task, injecting intellectual and emotional nuance that frequently transcends the script.”
– New York Times

Certificate
MONSTERS AND MEN is rated 15. Visit the BBFC website for full details (may include plot spoilers).