“Ugly” is the film debut of Newark native writer and director LeRon Lee which screened to overwhelmingly positive audience response at numerous film festivals last year, including the Pan African Film Festival and has won awards for Best Film Short at BET’s Bronzelens Film Festival and other film festivals. Turning to filmmaking after a career in the educational field, Lee says that his film was inspired by his works with kids, and that he “wanted to depict some of the behaviors students wrestle with just to fit in.”

The film follows a young man (Devon Boyd) and chronicles the trials and errors of a young man trying to build a romantic relationship in an urban environment where he doesn’t fit in. The title of the film “Ugly” is meant to delve beneath the surface of its moniker to reveal a story that explores adolescence through the eyes of an outcast. This is a story of what happens when peer pressure is self-inflicted.

According to Lee, “Ugly” is a kind of film that he always wanted to see: “The story of a kid in the environment but not of the environment. Many kids struggle to find comfort in their differences when it isn’t particularly accepted by their uniformed surrounding. During my years as a resident and educator in Newark,NJ, the students that had difficulty navigating their own environment inspired this film. Many kids struggled to identify while being surrounded by popular, misguided thinking. In many situations, students were pressured into situations that fell outside their comfort zone.This film serves as exposure to the characters that are often not represented in these environments. These are the kids that we know exist, but we don’t often see them on the big screen”.

He claims Jason Rietman’s film “Juno” as a huge inspiration for “Ugly” because, “when I saw that, I became sort of jealous because that’s not something you’d see in my neighborhood. You’d run the risk of alienation if you did decide to do something different. I believe uniformity is based on the fear to be different. I became influenced to take those characters and place them in my neighborhood. How would those characters interact with their peers here?”

Now “Ugly” will be available for everyone to see starting next month, Feb 1 on HBO, HBO On Demand, HBO GO, and HBO NOW. In addition, it will screen live on HBO on February 24, 2017 at 8:15PM EST and February 25th at 7:40PM EST.

Below is the trailer for the film.