Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand, or floating, with equanimity, in the clouds, you’ll know that the 2nd film to be distributed theatrically via AFFRM (the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement), which was announced on Independence Day, July 4, 2011, will be Alrick Brown’s 2011 Sundance award-winner Kinyarwanda!

Thanks to the AFFRM team, Shadow And Act has your first look at the official release poster for the film, as well as the opening date, and specific release cities.

All the details are in the following press release, but, here are the vitals:

– AFFRM will open Kinyarwanda on Friday, December 2 in 8 cities nationwide.

– Those 8 cities will be, first the movement’s founding cities: New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Seattle; as well as 3 new opening week cities that have been added: Chicago, Washington DC and San Francisco.

Alrick Brown’s drama, which is also his feature directorial debut, won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Drama category, at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Grand Prize at the prestigious Skip City Film Festival in Japan last week, indicative of its universally-accessible themes.

As a recap, the films’ official synopsis:

a young Tutsi woman and a young Hutu man fall in love amidst chaos, a soldier struggles with being absent from her family to foster a greater good, and a priest grapples with his faith in the face of unspeakable horror.

We’ll be further covering the film leading up to its December 2nd release, including an interview with director Alrick Brown, whom we actually have yet to chat with.

In the meantime, check out the full poster below, and get to know Alrick (and more about the film) in the video clip that follows (note: the new AFFRM trailer for Kinyarwanda will be released soon enough):

Sundance Film Festival 2011 Audience Award Winner Hits Theaters

KINYARWANDA

AFFRM To Release Alrick Brown’s Acclaimed Feature Debut on
December 2, 2011 in Eight Cities

Los Angeles, CA (October 24, 2011) – AFFRM, the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement, is pleased to announce that it will open its second film, KINYARWANDA, in theaters on Friday, December 2 in eight cities nationwide.

KINYARWANDA will be released in AFFRM’s founding markets: New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Seattle. In addition, three new opening week cities have been added: Chicago, Washington DC and San Francisco.

Writer/director Alrick Brown’s compelling feature directorial debut garnered the Sundance Film Festival 2011 Audience Award in the World Cinema Drama category this year, and captured the Grand Prize at the lauded Skip City Film Festival in Japan last week.

In KINYARWANDA, a young Tutsi woman and a young Hutu man fall in love amidst chaos, a soldier struggles with being absent from her family to foster a greater good, and a priest grapples with his faith in the face of unspeakable horror. The Hollywood Reporter stated, “Brown presents these personal and heartbreaking stories with steadfast compassion.”

AFFRM is a collaborative theatrical distribution entity powered by the nation’s finest black film organizations. The founding organizations are Urbanworld Film Festival with Imagenation in New York, BronzeLens Film Festival in Atlanta, ReelBlack Film Series in Philadelphia and Langston Hughes African-American Film Festival in Seattle. For its second release, AFFRM is pleased to welcome the DuSable Museum of African-American History in Chicago and the Black Cinema at Large Film Series in San Francisco. AFFRM’s inaugural release was the award-winning film, I WILL FOLLOW, which opened March 2011 in more than 20 cities during its seven week run.