REDEMPTION, For Colored Boys, Season 1, Episode 1

REDEMPTION, For Colored Boys
Season 1, Episode 1
Written and Directed by Stacey Muhammad
Starring: Julito McCullum and Rob Morgan

with Tiye Phoenix, Rudy St. Fleur, Ryan Stephenson, Kai Muhammad & Danny Simmons

About the Series:
Benjamin Boyd, Sr. returns home after years of incarceration, determined to reunite his family by rekindling the love between he and his wife and re-assuming his role as father to his teenage daughter and 20-year-old son, E.

A talented yet somewhat troubled young man, E has had to shoulder a tremendous amount of responsibility during his father's incarceration. Accustomed to assisting his mother and helping raise his now 15-year-old sister, Sidney, he is pulled and persuaded by the temptations of his environment to make money and provide for his family.

Returning home, Benjamin finds his son is no longer a boy, but a man -- a man unwilling to acknowledge or accept the presence of his father. In order to mend a troubled and fragile relationship and rebuild his family, Benjamin must be careful not to overstep his bounds, yet still re-establish his presence as E's father.

Review:
"Redemption, For Colored Boys" mines drama out of the absent-father-returns scenario but gives the characters a genuine life and personality (the son records music passionately, his father has a warm encounter with a bodega clerk) before the histrionics start, so when they do, it feels realistic. Furthermore, the movie uses the short form to its advantage: the director cuts immediately after the altercation between father and son, suggesting that things can't actually be repaired. It's a much more honest, powerful statement than any gift-wrapped reconciliation you'd find elsewhere.
Christopher Bell (Indiewire)