Tag: film

Atlanta-born and -based Mila Harris was eight years old when she appeared on Nickelodeon’s hit series Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan. That role proved to be an absolute career catapult for the actress, who is now 14. In the years since, she has appeared in nearly a dozen feature films, including the upcoming films World Breaker and Coyote.

When Atlanta actress Danielle Deadwyler is reading a script for the first time, she has to feel a spark of “curiosity, inventiveness, or spontaneity” before agreeing to star. This approach has worked well for her in recent years; every performance she gives aches in humanity, as she goes from intense to vulnerable to funny to strong in an instant. Deadwyler is just as mesmerizing in 40 Acres, the post-apocalyptic thriller in which she plays Hailey Freeman, the matriarch of a family trying to survive on a farm after a series of plagues and wars.

Like Atlanta’s unlikely journey to host the 1996 Centennial Olympics, for The Games in Black and White filmmakers George Hirthler and Bob Judson, the path to make the new documentary—premiering at the 49th annual Atlanta Film Festival Saturday, April 26 at the Rialto Theatre for the Arts—was equally long and complicated.

The Atlanta Film Festival has always highlighted the best of the peach state, but local films are at the core of the 49th year of the festival. From April 24 to May 4, the festival screens 132 films—from documentaries to animated shorts to features—including 40 films with Georgia connections. Atlanta magazine spoke to the directors of two of these films to learn more about each feature and its local ties.

Opus writer/director Mark Anthony Green credits all the great things he’s achieved in his life and career to his legendary Atlanta alma mater, Morehouse College. Green introduced his directorial debut—a stylish horror film set in the celebrity world of music starring Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) and two-time Oscar nominee John Malkovich—at Atlantic Station, where the 2010 graduate would watch films weekly as a student.

These are Atlanta's 500 most powerful leaders. We spent months consulting experts and sorting through nominations to get a list of the city's most influential people—from artists to chefs to philanthropists to sports coaches and corporate CEOs. In this section, we focus on arts, film, music, entertainment, and sports.

Billing itself as "unapologetically absurd, dark, and wildly comedic," Atlanta-based Adult Swim's unconventional original film Yule Log returns with a sequel, Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out, on December 6. Shot entirely in the city, the production relied on a crew comprised soley of local talent.

Until it becomes clear what this new normal will entail, the future of Georgia’s film industry—and the livelihoods of thousands of crew members who serve as the backbone of your favorite blockbuster film or TV show—remains in limbo.

Danielle Deadwyler’s work is inventive, thought-provoking, and captivating; Hollywood was always eventually going to take notice. Station Eleven, The Harder They Fall, and Till made clear that she had the screen presence to command viewers’ attention and the emotional depth to sway their hearts. Jumping into the Hollywood machine only sharpened and heightened Deadwyler’s already considerable talents. Clearly, she was just getting started.

It’s October 1970, and Muhammad Ali’s triumphant return to boxing in Atlanta has spawned a daring million-dollar robbery that is now threatening to ignite a mob war. On this particular afternoon, Atlanta police detective J.D. Hudson, embodied by Don Cheadle, has zero expletives left to give.