Brown Girl Begins

It’s 2049 and a druglord owns the streets of The Burn. Young Ti-Jeanne must choose between her fear of dying like her mother, or harnessing the power of the Caribbean spirits to save her people.

It’s 2049 and Toronto the Good has been taken over by the wealthy. A wall has been built around the city and the poor are expelled to an island off the coast, known as The Burn. The segregated Burndwellers have been forced to scrape out a living by bartering, recycling, and farming. Mami is the unspoken leader of the Burn, sharing her Caribbean herb lore and leading her followers in an ancient spiritual practice. Ti-Jeanne turns 19 and the time has come for her to succeed her grandmother and become a Priestess. When Mami tries to prepare her to take part in the same possession ritual that killed her mother, Ti-Jeanne refuses. She flees with her young love Tony to the other side of the Burn in hopes of leaving the spirit business behind. Until – out of the ashes of The Burn, a drug lord rises to take control of the remaining population and uses his right hand, Crack, to torment the Burn dwellers and prepare them for sale to mainlanders as smart slaves. When Crack begins torturing the children of the Burn, Ti-Jeanne can no longer refuse her other-worldly powers as a priestess. She is the only hope to save them. Can Ti-Jeanne handle the power of the spirits she has been so afraid of and save her people, or will her fear kill her?

Trailer


Film Stills

Image Caption: Featured image for ‘Brown Girl Begins’.

Brown Girl Begins (2017)

Feature (84mins) Narrative Fantasy, Sciencefiction

Region:

Canada

Language:

English

Rating:

PG-13

Director(s):

Sharon Lewis

Cast:

Allison Augustin; Danielle Ayow; Measha Brueggergosman; Hannah Chantée; Alli Chung; Rachael Crawford; Joey DeCarle; Sonia Dhillon Tully; Leon Elkaim; Dorett Emanuei; Charles Fowler; Franckie Francois; Howard Gord; Elijha Hammill; Kiki Hammill; Brittany Johnson; Amrit Kaur; Keeya King; Sy Jin Lee; Andy McQueen; Nadin Rizk; David Rudder; Peter Sacco; Ryan Singh; Patrick Sue-Chan; Cameron Switzer; Ronald Tang; Allen Zarnett.

Showtimes:

Fri 21 Sep 2018, 6.00pm,

Sat 22 Sep 2018, 6.00pm, q+a

Tue 25 Sep 2018, 8.30pm,

Tue 25 Sep 2018, 6.30pm, q+a

Caribbean Premiere


Sharon Lewis

Sharon Lewis

Sharon Lewis is a Canadian television personality and film Director from Toronto, Canada. She has also acted in a number of films, including Degrassi: The Next Generation, where she was the mother of Jimmy Brooks, played by the rapper Drake. In 2017, she directed her afrofuturist feature film, Brown Girl Begins, which features David Rudder.

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