April is just around the corner; here’s what you can look forward to during the month in terms of new black cinema and TV programming. A busy month ahead (especially for TV premieres), so mark your calendars for whatever you have interest in below! Links take you to full write-ups on each project, with trailers, posters, etc.
TELEVISION
— Baron Vaughn (“Grace and Frankie,” “Mystery Science Theater 3000”) chose not to let a statistic define him and set out on a quest to search for the father he never knew. Baron’s journey and the revelations about his upbringing are chronicled in FUSION TV’s original documentary, “Fatherless” premiering Sunday, April 2 at 9PM ET.
— “The Best Place To Be,” a new Travel Channel mini-series from Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere at Flavor Unit, will premiere on April 2 at 5pm ET/PT.
— Season 2 of the hit British series “Chewing Gum” will premiere on Netflix on April 4th.
–Critically-acclaimed documentary “Strike a Pose” will become widely accessible when it make its TV premiere on cable network Logo on April 6 at 9pm ET/PT.
— Netflix has set an April 7 premiere date for part 2 of its music-driven 1970s-set drama series, “The Get Down.”
— BBC’s 3-part documentary series “Nile Rodgers: Lost In Music” – on the life and career of the Grammy-award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer – will premiere on April 7, 2017. For USA audiences, your best bet is to sign up for the newly-launched BritBox, a new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service specifically for USA audiences, from BBC and ITV. The service features USA premieres of BBC and ITV shows as soon as 24-hours after UK broadcast.
— “The Great War” is an upcoming three-part, six-hour AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary that will premiere on April 10, 9pm ET on PBS. The epic documentary tells the rich and complex story of World War I through the voices of nurses, journalists, aviators and the American troops who came to be known as “doughboys.” The series especially explores the experiences of African American and Latino soldiers, suffragists, Native American “code talkers” and others whose participation in the war to “make the world safe for democracy” has been largely forgotten.
— The new season of “Doctor Who,” which co-stars Pearl Mackie as the new companion, premieres on BBC America on April 15th at 9/8c.
— Documentary “J. Cole: 4 Your Eyez Only, A Dreamville Film” premieres on HBO on Saturday, April 15 at 10pm.
— TV One presents the film adaptation of Director/Producer Donald B. Welch’s inspirational stage play, “The Lost Souls Café,” on Easter Sunday, April 16 at 6 p.m. ET.
— Showtime premieres its six-part limited event series “Guerrilla,” on Sunday, April 16 at 9 pm ET/PT. It will also premiere in the UK on the Sky network during the same week.
— HBO has confirmed an April 16 9pm return for “The Leftovers,” with the drama series set to kick off its eight-episode, third and final season. The Murphys return: John (Kevin Carroll) and Erika (Regina King), and their teenage twins, Evie (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Michael (Jovan Adepo).
— A&E will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots with a two-hour documentary co-produced by John Singleton, titled “L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later.” A&E has set an April 18 premiere for the film.
— Showtime will premiere the new feature-length documentary “Burn Motherf*cker, Burn!”, on April 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The film, directed by Sacha Jenkins (“Fresh Dressed”), traces a throughline from the 1962 ransacking of a Los Angeles Nation of Islam mosque to the 1965 Watts riots, the rise of L.A. street gangs in the 1970s and ’80s, and the Rodney King beating in 1991.
— HBO has set an April 22, 8pm premiere date for its film adaptation of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”
— Justin Simien’s feature film debut “Dear White People” is heading to Netflix for what will be a 10-episode comedy series, starring Logan Browning, premiering on April 28.
— John Ridley’s documentary “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992” premieres on ABC on April 28.
— Spike Lee has directed a taping of “Rodney King” – Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man Rodney King show, which was picked up by Netflix to premiere on April 28 – a date that coincides with what will be the 25th anniversary of the acquittals of the LAPD officers who were videotaped brutally beating King in 1991.
— Smithsonian Channel will revisit the chaotic days following the April 29, 1992 Rodney King verdict, incorporating powerful media coverage, home videos, gripping photographs and LAPD recordings, in the April 23 installment of its documentary series, “The Lost Tapes.”
— “American Gods” premieres on Sunday, April 30th at 9PM ET/PT.
FILM
— Strand Releasing will open Michael O’Shea’s critically-acclaimed 2016 Cannes Film Festival selection, “The Transfiguration,” in New York on Friday, April 7th at the Angelika Film Center; and then in Los Angeles on Friday, April 21st at The Nuart Theatre.
— The “grandfather” of all heist films, “Going In Style,” starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin, will be released by Warner Bros. in theaters on April 7, 2017.
— 2K restoration of Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” will be released on blu-ray on April 11th (with a wealth of special features).
— Universal Pictures’ 8th chapter in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, titled “The Fate of the Furious,” will be released on April 14, 2017 in the USA.
— Abramorama will open John Scheinfeld’s documentary “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary” in USA theaters beginning in New York on April 14, 2017, with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and additional cities to follow.
— Gunpowder & Sky Distribution has set Rob Meyer’s “Little Boxes” for a theatrical and on demand release for April 14th.
— John Ridley’s documentary “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992” opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, April 21.
— XLrator Media has set an April 21st USA theatrical open, and an April 25th VOD release for French writer/director Luc Annest’s independent comedy feature “Nola Circus,” which chronicles the interconnected lives of people living in a black neighborhood in a town on the Mississippi River.
— “Get Out” producer Blumhouse opens JD Dillard’s feature debut, “Sleight,” on April 28, in USA theaters.
