Pernell Walker Movies

A teenage girl struggles with her sexuality and her identity in this short coming-of-age drama from filmmaker Dee Rees. Alike (Adepero Oduye) is a seventeen-year-old African-American woman growing up in the Bronx. Alike's parents are devout Christians, and around them she's well mannered and behaves in a soft and feminine fashion. However, one night Alike sneaks out to a nightclub and we're given a glimpse of her other life as she displays the harder, more masculine attitude she can reveal when she's out among her friends. However, as Alike's curfew approaches, the two sides of her personality begin to meld, as she has to become her parents' little girl on the way home from the dance club where she can reveal her secret self. Produced as a preview of an upcoming feature film, Pariah was voted Best Narrative Short at 2007's NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide