"Dirty Laundry" Sweeps Awards At American Black Film Festival

By Keith Boykin, in movies
Sunday, July 23 2006, 4:51PM

In a stunning turn of events five months before its scheduled theatrical release, the new movie Dirty Laundry won two major awards at one of the most important film festivals in the country today. The film -- starring Loretta Devine, Rockmond Dunbar and Jenifer Lewis -- won both of the big awards it was nominated for at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF).

Director Maurice Jamal accepted the Blockbuster Audience Award for Best U.S. Feature, while the film's star, Loretta Devine, won the Best Actor Award. "I'm overwhelmed," said Jamal. "It feels like the last kid picked to be on the kickball team and then all the sudden you're the class president," he said.

Jamal's partners shared the enthusiasm. "This is astounding," said executive producer Nathan Hale Williams, "but I just have a feeling that this is the first of many more to come. Maurice has crafted dialogue and a story that is real to everyone, not just to a select group of people."

The Story Line Wins Fans

Executive producer Crystal McCrary Anthony agreed. She described the win at ABFF as "a ringing endorsement" throughout the film community for the story. "The gatekeepers in Hollywood will constantly try to tell you that there's not a market for something, and what this movie has proven is that a good story is universal," she said. "It just so happens that our lead character is a gay man but the story transcends sexuality."

Executive producer Adrienne Lopez said she wasn't entirely surprised by the award but she was excited to win. "We all knew that we had something and we knew that it was a very, very special film," she said. "I've been in this business a very long time and it's very rare that it happens like this, where you sort of make a film and 2 to 3 months later we're getting this type of outstanding response and this type of attention." Lopez said she had seen numerous other films "sit on shelves" and "never get the type of attention that this film has gotten." And she attributed the success to the storyline. "It's just the right time for this type of story," she said.

Nearly 1,000 people saw the film in two sold-out screenings at the Miami-based film festival. The film has sold out at film festivals in every city it's been shown, including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Washington, D.C. The ABFF award was presented today by director and actor Robert Townsend, who financed his own first film, Hollywood Shuffle, on a credit card. "To get the award from Robert Townsend was such a full circle moment for me because Robert doing what he does inspired me to do what I did," said Jamal.

The film makers could also take comfort because the ABFF film festival is widely respected in Hollywood. "Being at a festival like ABFF, which is distributor-heavy and very much in the mainstream of the entertainment community, and to have the audience there embrace this as the best film of the year really shows the viability of black films with challenging content and hot button issues," said Jamal.

Crystal McCrary Anthony agreed. "Dirty Laundry has really become the little movie that could," she said, "defying all odds."

• Dirty Laundry [IMDB]
• Dirty Laundry web site (The site has been down recently due to heavy traffic.)

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