Speed Cinema Presents: For Ahkeem
Friday, November 3, 7:00 pm
Speed Art Museum Cinema
Directed by Landon Van Soest and Jeremy Levine
“A brash kaleidoscope of filmic possibility.” —Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
Beginning one year before the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, For Ahkeem is the coming-of-age story of Daje Shelton, a Black 17-year-old girl in North St. Louis. She fights for her future as she is placed in an alternative high school and navigates the marginalized neighborhoods, biased criminal justice policies and economic devastation that have set up many Black youth like her to fail.
After she is expelled from her public high school, a juvenile court judge sends Daje to the court-supervised Innovative Concept Academy, which offers her one last chance to earn a diploma. Over two years we watch as Daje struggles to maintain focus in school, attends the funerals of friends killed around her, falls in love with a classmate named Antonio, and navigates a loving-but-tumultuous relationship with her mother.
As Antonio is drawn into the criminal justice system, Daje learns she is pregnant and must contend with the reality of raising an infant.
Through Daje’s intimate story, For Ahkeem illuminates challenges that many Black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive. Official selection of the 2017 Berlinale Forum and Tribeca Film Festival. 2017, U.S., DCP, 98 minutes. Recommended for 13+.
Don’t forget to bring your Speed Art Museum membership card to verify your membership.