''Pariah'' is a 2011 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written and directed by

Dee Rees Diandrea Rees (born February 7, 1977) is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films '' Pariah'' (2011), '' Bessie'' (2015), '' Mudbound'' (2017), and '' The Last Thing He Wanted'' (2020). Rees has also written and d ...

. It tells the story of Alike (

Adepero Oduye Adepero Oduye ( ) (born January 11, 1978) is an American actress, director, singer, and writer. She is known for '' Pariah'' (2011), '' 12 Years a Slave'' (2013), ''The Big Short'' (2015), and '' Widows'' (2018). Life and career Adepero Oduye ...

), a 17-year-old Black teenager embracing her identity as a lesbian. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Excellence in Cinematography Award. In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

Plot

Alike ("Lee") is a 17-year-old Black girl who hangs out at clubs with her openly lesbian friend Laura. Alike slowly and firmly comes to terms with her own identity as a butch lesbian, comfortable in baggy clothes and male underwear. Her mother Audrey approves of neither her clothes nor her friendship with Laura. Harboring growing suspicions about Alike's sexuality, Audrey forces her to wear feminine clothing and tries to stem any influence from Laura by pushing Alike to instead make friends with Bina, a girl from her church. Alike has a better relationship with her father Arthur, who is a police detective. Alike begins to develop feelings for Bina, and starts spending more time with her than with Laura, much to Laura's annoyance. Arthur comes back late a few times from work, which angers Audrey and the two of them fight often. Arthur does not think much about the changes in Alike's life. Saying she is going through a phase, he is supportive of her, although he cautions her on steering clear of the area where there is a lesbian bar, saying it's not safe. One night after going to see an alternative rock band, Alike and Bina are alone in Bina's room when Bina begins caressing and kissing Alike. Alike is at first hesitant, having had no prior experience with physical intimacy. However, she eventually responds and the two spend the night together. In the morning, Alike talks to Bina about where they want their relationship to go, but Bina says there is no relationship, as she is not "really gay-gay" and only regarded their physical encounter as playful indulgence. Her only further interest in Alike seems to be her concern that Alike not tell anyone else about the two of them. Hurt and upset, Alike leaves and returns home and cries for hours. During that time, Audrey and Arthur have an explosive fight about Alike. Despite her sister Sharonda's protests, Alike decides to intervene in the fight and she comes out to her parents. Disgusted, Audrey viciously attacks Alike while Arthur tries to restrain her. Alike flees to Laura's house where the two friends reconcile. Audrey then tries to forget that anything happened, which annoys the rest of her family. Arthur comes to meet with Alike, apologizes for Audrey's actions and requests that Alike come back home, offering half-hearted assurance that if she does, "things will be different". Alike says that she will not return home, but instead plans to move to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to begin college early. She assures her father that, "I'm not running; I'm choosing." Before leaving, Alike makes an attempt to reconcile with her mother as well. However, her mother refuses to accept her and offers only that she will be praying for Alike. Arthur, Sharonda and Laura see Alike off on her journey west and the film ends with Alike reading a poem she wrote; its theme echoes her words to her father that she is not running, but choosing.

Cast

as Alike *

Aasha Davis Aasha Davis (born August 17, 1973) is an American actress best known for her roles as Waverly Grady on ''Friday Night Lights (TV series), Friday Night Lights'' and Chelsea Lewis on ''South of Nowhere.'' Career Davis is best known for playing t ...

as Bina, Alike's love interest * Charles Parnell as Arthur, Alike's father *

Kim Wayans Kimberly Nichole Wayans (born October 16, 1961) is an American actress and comedian. Wayans is the sister of Keenen Ivory, Damon Sr., Marlon, Shawn and Nadia Wayans. She is best known for her numerous roles on the Fox sketch comedy show ''In ...

as Audrey, Alike's mother * Pernell Walker as Laura, Alike's best friend * Sahra Mellesse as Sharonda, Alike's younger sister

Production

The film is a feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees’ award-winning 2007 short film ''Pariah''.

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

was one of the executive producers. Filming took place in and around

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, predominantly in the

Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the wes ...

neighborhood in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Reception and legacy

''Pariah'' premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Excellence in Cinematography Award. The film was shown at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

in September 2011. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 7.87/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Pulsing with authenticity and led by a stirring lead performance from Adepero Oduye, ''Pariah'' is a powerful coming out/coming-of-age film that signals the arrival of a fresh new talent in writer/director Dee Rees." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 79 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In his ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' article, film critic

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

wrote that to watch Adepero Oduye play Alike "is to experience the thrill of discovery." Scott continued by saying that "Pariah has a point to make, and a point of view to argue, but it also, above all, wants to illuminate an individual universe of meaning and emotion."

AutoStraddle Autostraddle is an independently owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women ( cis and trans), as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer femin ...

placed the movie third on its list of the top 200 lesbian, queer and bisexual movies of all time.

Awards and nominations

African-American Film Critics Association The African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) is the world's largest group of Black film critics that gives various annual awards for excellence in film and television. It was founded in 2003 in New York City. History The association wa ...

** Best Picture (runner-up) ** Best Independent Film (Winner) ** Best Breakthrough Performance, (Adepero Oduye) (Winner) *

Black Reel Awards The Black Reel Awards, or BRAs, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF) to recognize excellence of African Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the Afr ...

** Best Picture (Nominated) ** Best Director: Dee Rees, (Nominated) ** Best Actress: Adepero Oduye, (Nominated) ** Best Screenplay: Dee Rees, (Nominated) ** Best Supporting Actress: *** Kim Wayans, (Nominated) *** Pernell Walker, (Nominated) ** Best Ensemble, (Nominated) ** Best Breakthrough Performance: *** Kim Wayans, (Nominated) *** Adepero Oduye, (Winner) * Black Film Critics Circle ** Best Picture (runner-up) ** Best Director: (Dee Rees), Winner ** Best Original Screenplay: (Dee Rees), Winner ** Best Independent Film, Winner ** Best Breakthrough Performance: (Adepero Oduye), Winner * Independent Spirit Awards ** Best Female Lead,

(Nominated) **

John Cassavetes Award The Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award is presented to the creative team of a film budgeted at less than $500,000 by the Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers. It is named after ac ...

(Winner) * 44th NAACP Image Awards ** Outstanding Independent Motion Picture (Winner) ** Outstanding Motion Picture (Nominated) ** Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: *** Adepero Oduye - "Pariah" (Nominated) ** Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture: *** Charles Parnell - "Pariah" (Nominated) ** Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: *** Kim Wayans - "Pariah" (Nominated)

References

External links

* * *
''Pariah: Song of the Self''
an essay by Cassie da Costa at the Criterion Collection {{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture 2011 films 2011 LGBT-related films 2011 directorial debut films 2011 independent films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American teen LGBT-related films African-American films African-American LGBT-related films American LGBT-related films Lesbian-related films LGBT-related coming-of-age films LGBT-related drama films Juvenile sexuality in films Films set in Brooklyn Films shot in New York City Films directed by Dee Rees Films about mother–daughter relationships Films about father–daughter relationships Films about anti-LGBT sentiment Features based on short films John Cassavetes Award winners Sundance Film Festival award winners United States National Film Registry films