Speller Street Films Releases Cult Fave AN ACT OF PROTEST (2001) on Oct 30
Speller Street Films, the North Carolina-based film company founded by Christopher Everett, has acquired the never-before-released AS AN ACT OF PROTEST (2001), a cult fave from radical artist Dennis Leroy Kangalee.
Since 2001 its world premiere at the American Black Film Festival, the film has screened throughout Europe, but was never picked up for distribution until Speller Street Film’s October 30 worldwide release of the extended European version on Vimeo On Demand.
“With the current racial and political climate, now is the perfect time to re-introduce this powerful film to the world once again,” said Christopher Everett, President of Speller Street Films. “Dennis has always carried the torch of creating protest art and creating art for social change. Originally the film was supposed to be released just before 9/11. This is an excellent time to bring his unseen gem to a new audience.”
The film follows Cairo Medina (Che Ayende), a young African American actor, who goes through a station-of-the-cross journey to find the meaning of his life and eradicate the racism and police brutality that continue to plague the world. After its initial screening in 2001, Variety noted: “Almost more of a documentary than a feature film, AS AN ACT OF PROTEST aims to teach and shock — and succeeds on both counts.”
An eternal outsider, Trinidadian New Yorker Kangalee – which means the dispossessed – left the Juilliard conservatory in 1997 for its lack of Black voices to form Dionysus 2000, one of downtown New York’s leading politically progressive theater groups. He’s currently working with Speller Street Films on a new feature film.
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