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Q&A with George Tillman, Jr. | TIFF Stay-at-Home Cinema | TIFF 2020

Published on Tue, Apr 28th 2020 Film & Animation Rectangular HD

The magic of filmgoing together, at home. TIFF Stay-at-Home Cinema hosted a virtual Q&A with George Tillman, Jr., and Cameron Bailey on Friday, April 24, on Instagram Live (@tiff_net), before a screening of THE HATE U GIVE.

We want to share the magic of filmgoing together while we watch from home. With this in mind, TIFF has curated a series from Crave’s extensive selection of titles, accompanied by conversations with special guests via Instagram. Learn more on http://TIFF.net/stayathome.

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) lives two lives: in her working-class neighbourhood she is Starr Version One, just being her teenage Black girl self; at school she is Version Two, code-switching her speech and behaviour to fit in with the rich, white world of her classmates. One night, she reconnects with her childhood sweetheart, Khalil (Algee Smith), but their blissful ride turns ugly when their car is pulled over by police; Khalil makes one wrong move and is shot dead, leaving Starr and the police officer as the only witnesses. Caught between worlds at a time when she is still working out who she is, Starr struggles to make the right choices. Should she adhere to the code of silence demanded by the neighbourhood drug lord (Anthony Mackie), or listen to her uncle (Common), a police officer who urges her to trust the justice system? And what can she say to her friends at school, whose opinions on police violence and crime in Black neighbourhoods suddenly opens a gulf she finds hard to bridge? As gripping, timely, and urgent as its source material, George Tillman, Jr.’s adaptation of the novel by Angie Thomas also confirms Stenberg’s status as an actor with the range and charisma to serve as a leading voice for young people now.