Leonie Forbes Movies
- 2007
A community torn asunder by the death of a young child must fight to regain the sense of solidarity they had before this sudden tragedy in director Frances-Ann Solomon's elegiac urban drama. It was a typical night in the downtown Toronto community of Parkdale when the sound of gunshots shattered the still winter silence. By the time the silence in the neighborhood was restored, a ten year-old boy lay dead in the streets - the unfortunate recipient of a bullet intended for a local drug dealer. While the regular diners at Miss G's Caribbean Take-Away do their best to settle back into their regular routine, the crushing weight of suspicion and the foul stench of grief linger much too strong for devastated local Gene Wright. Gene knows that the only way for his neighborhood to prevent any more children from dying is to pull together, and upon approaching his friends for help he is grateful to find that he's not the only one feeling this way. Before long, six like-minded black men who share Gene's passion for life vow to form a community support group designed to ensure that the children in their neighborhood can look forward to a bright and positive future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Williams, Michael Miller, (more)
Chilean Raul Ruiz directed this psychological suspense thriller which might be described as Alfred Hitchcock meets La Femme Nikita. In Seattle, hit-woman Jessie (Anne Parillaud) enters a restaurant men's room, kills a businessman, goes home, falls asleep, and awakens aboard a Jamaica-bound plane, recalling the previous event as a nightmare. When just-married Jessie and her husband Brian (William Baldwin) arrive in Jamaica for their honeymoon, it becomes evident that Brian is trying to save Jessie, a rape victim carrying suicidal wrist scars. Sleeping in Seattle, minus the scars, Jessie awakens to plot another killing. Checking out an antiques shop, she sees the man from her dream, and she's immediately attracted to him. Parillaud described her character: "She goes through different sorts of reality, dream, fantasy, and illusion," seeking an exit from the trap of her psychological labyrinth. Shown at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Parillaud, William Baldwin, (more)
- 1995
- PG13
The two-part British miniseries Soul Survivors was all about second chances. Ian McShane was cast against type as Otis Cooke, a disc jockey on a Liverpool soul music station. After the cancellation of his radio program , Otis whimsically headed to America in hopes of reuniting his favorite soul band, The Tallahassees (whose big hit was, appropriately enough, "Pickin' Up the Pieces"). In bringing the singers back together, Cooke reasoned that somehow he'd give his own life some meaning. Real-life musician Isaac Hayes co-starred as the Tallahassees' contrary lead singer Vernon, while other roles were filled by Derrick O'Connor, Antonio Fargas, Taurean Blacque, and Scott Wilson. The two 90-minute installments of Soul Survivors were seen over BBC 2 in 1995, and later re-edited into a single 125-minute feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McShane, Margi Clarke, (more)
- 1995
Johanna (Josette Simon) is a Jamaican woman who emigrates to Canada to escape the crushing poverty of her homeland. She lands a job as a nanny for a yuppie couple and develops a loving relationship with their children. Johanna misses her son David (Richard Mills) and makes plans to fly him up for the Christmas holiday. Her friends try and talk her into letting the boy stay illegally and enlist the help of Gordon (Errol Slue) to falsify the necessary documents. David and Johanna are housed by Adam (Lyman Ward), the school principal who once tried to seduce Johanna after she attended a night class he was teaching. Later, mother and son face deportation, and Adam loses his job for intentionally ignoring David's bogus immigration documents. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josette Simon, Lyman Ward, (more)
- 1980
A drama about the lifestyles of free-living Jamaicans, director Lennie Little-White's Babylon does not lack sexual encounters. The beauteous graduate student Penny (Tobi) is picked up hitchhiking by an equally attractive artist named Rick (Don Parchment). The two of them put up at a local plantation whose owner Laura (Elizabeth de Lisser) is Rick's lover. Luke (Bob Andy) is a Rastafarian who works at the plantation and Penny ends up falling for both Rick and Luke. The combinations expand when Luke's girlfriend is added into the mix, creating a kind of sexual musical chairs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Andy
