It’s A Good Day To Be Black & Sexy: An official selection 2008 Sundance Film Festival


 

This was the official site for the 2008 indie film, It’s A Good Day To Be Black & Sexy, an official selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Content is from the site's 2008 archived pages, as well as from other outside sources.

Available on Amazon Prime for rental or purchase.

"The indie film, A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy, came out in 2008 and was a daring attempt to highlight the lives of multiple residents in Cali during a very hot day. Shot through vignettes, each scene seemed to be accompanied by some of the chillest music that I had never heard before. The soundtrack, which garnered pretty hot attention in 2009 was a bonafide winner. My favorite was Allegra Doloros' "The Music OK" and I even enjoyed Sheena Player's "Tonite," which reminded me of early grooves by the late singer Aaliyah."
Moon | www.soulbounce.com/



A Good Day to be Black and Sexy - Trailer
This mix tape of deftly arranged vignettes serves as a dreamy celebration of the beautiful and chocolate coated—or does it? a sophisticated, knowing look at modern relationships, this is a sharply detailed, at times acid comedy about the (almost) universal problems of modern love.

 

Urban Philly/ReelBlack
Thur. July 31st @ TBA
Venue: TBA
Philadelphia, PA


Black Harvest Int'l Festival of Film
Sat. August 23rd @ 8:30pm
Wed. August 27th @ 8:30pm 
Gene Siskel Film Center
Chicago, IL

 

 

 

 



SUNDANCE '08 - INTERVIEW: A GOOD DAY TO BE BLACK AND SEXY
An interview at 2008 Sundance Film Festival with Dennis Dortch, Director of A GOOD DAY TO BE BLACK AND SEXY.

 

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AFI FEST 2008 Red Carpet Arrivals - Day 7

In This Photo: Dennis Dortch
Director Dennis Dortch (front R) and cast and crew of "A Good Day To Be Black & Sexy" arrive the 2008 AFI FEST held at Arclight Hollywood on November 5, 2008 in Hollywood, California.

 



 

REVIEWS

 

A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy

1/29/2008 by Duane ByrgeAP / www.hollywoodreporter.com/

Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY -- Relationship problems kill bedroom performance in this smart romance-romp. A raunchy between-the-sheets peak at modern-day black sexuality, "A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy" should woo urban audiences to the theater, and score on BET and as a DVD rental.

A series of frothy vignettes, "Black & Sexy" centers on relationship dynamics, and, in these ribald cases, relationship dysfunctions. In filmmaker Dennis Dortch's perceptive comedy, miscommunication messes up sex. Usually, there's a third partner in bed in these sexual/romantic encounters: a hidden agenda. 

Blending movie and musical styles to enhance the individual segments, Dortch has created an entertaining glimpse into black sexuality and romance. Audiences will identify with his realistic and identifiable characters, in large part thanks to the talented and exuberant cast. 

Among the well-assembled cast, Mylika Davis stands out as a take-charge innocent who suffers through her teenage dawg days. Chonte Harris is hilarious as a put-upon "other woman" who skewers her married lover with brilliant, irrational logic. As the perplexed player, Marcuis Harris is sympathetic and lamentable.

All performances are on-target and ripe, highlighted by smart turns from Kathryn Taylor as a selfish lover, Emily Liu as an Asian-American with a forbidden yen for a black basketball star, and Brandon Valley Jones as a flustered, neglected lover.

Tech credits are a soothing and sizzling blend, clarifying the psycho-sexual dramas.

A GOOD DAY TO BE BLACK & SEXY
Magnolia Pictures
1976 Experience
Credits: 
Director/screenwriter/music supervisor: Dennis Dortch
Producer: Layla Mashavu Sewell
Director of photography: Brian Harding
Production designer: Vali Tirsoaga
Editors: Tangier Clarke, Dennis Dortch
Casting director: Adetoro Makinde
Cast: 


Jeanette: Kathryn Taylor
Tony: Brandon Valley Jones
Candi: Nana Hill
Helena: Chonte Harris
D'Andre: Marcuis Harris
Tamala: Mylika Davis
Jabari: Allen Maldonado
Russell: Kareem Grimes
Julian: Jerome Hawkins
Jesse: Alphonso Jackson
Jasmine: Emily Liu
Running time -- 92 minutes
No MPAA rating


TOMATOMETER CRITICS 80% | AUDIENCE 51%

 

Writer/director/editor Dennis Dortch explores the subject of sexuality and relationships within the black community in this collection of six vignettes set in Los Angeles and designed to shatter stereotypes about black sexuality. From the woman determined to get hers first to the curious teenager who finds herself in a questionable situation and the boy who becomes stifled by interracial taboos, Dortch's film doesn't shy away from the more controversial aspects of contemporary sexuality.

 


Critics Reviews

 

Dortch's manipulation of stereotype and the associations embedded in everything from skin tone to music set him apart as a talent to watch.
Dec 4, 2008
Ernest Hardy  L.A. Weekly    Top Critic

Writer-director Dennis Dortch’s A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy is a series of vignettes that largely hinges on sex scenes of varying degrees of erotic heat. It’s less the sexual sizzle and more the psychological nuances of relationships that interest him. In “Reciprocity,” a woman’s refusal to return her boyfriend’s oral favors throws light on larger power struggles, while in “Tonight,” a teenager’s refusal to give her virginity to her boyfriend lands her stranded roadside, and later flirting with an older man. “Her Man” follows as a steamy coupling between a mistress and her married lover results in a tug-of-war about the terms of their relationship.

And “American Boyfriend” dips into pools of race and culture clash, as a young Chinese woman attempts to hide her black boyfriend from her family. Dortch has a sly, often deceptively light hand as he references everything from ’70s Blaxploitation to underground/indie hip-hop and R&B, Asian porn and Cassavettes in his portrait of the battleground dynamics of Negroes in lust and love. A couple of the tales drag on too long; all could be written tighter, and a few could be pushed further conceptually, but Dortch’s manipulation of stereotype and the associations embedded in everything from skin tone to music set him apart as a talent to watch. (The Bridge) (Ernest Hardy)

+++

Jan 30, 2008
Duane Byrge  Hollywood Reporter  Top Critic
A raunchy between-the-sheets peak at modern-day black sexuality...should woo urban audiences to the theater.

+++

Feb 10, 2009 | Rating: 3/4
Kam Williams   NewsBlaze
A kooky, kinky quintet of black bedtimes stories.

 


 

Related: The other day while I was helping my brother, we got to talking about films, a common topic of interest for us. We were reminiscing about the 2008 indie film, "It's A Good Day To Be Black & Sexy." It's been more than a decade since we saw it as high school students in NYC. The soundtrack was fantastic, and it sparked a conversation about what the director has been up to since that breakout movie. "Let's finish up here, and then we can do a quick search," I suggested, knowing my brother's tendency to get distracted. We were determined to complete our task of selecting some unique pickleball gifts, as he needed to prepare for his trip to Cannes. We wanted to find something that would blend his love for pickleball and his passion for film.

After choosing some innovative pickleball equipment that reflected the creativity and spirit of independent cinema, we did a search for Dennis Dortch. According to IMDb, he has 21 credits as a director, most for a number of TV series, and likewise for Producer credits (20). The man has been BUSY. With partners, he created BLACK&SEXY TV, a spin-off venture from his 2008 Sundance Film Festival darling, “A Good Day to be Black and Sexy." BLACK&SEXY TV is an entertainment and lifestyle network that has coined the phrase "Independent TV" while creating a slate of programming focused on a young, progressive, Black audience who seek a truer reflection of their modern culture

In 2019 he is the producer for the film Jezebel, a bizarre coming of age story depicts sisterhood in a most unusual way. Summary: In the last days of her mother's life, 19 year old Tiffany crashes with five family members in a Las Vegas studio apartment. In order to make ends meet, her older sister, a phone sex operator, introduces her to the world of internet fetish cam girls. Tiffany becomes popular as the only "live black model" at the new adult site and soon becomes too close to one of her frequent callers. Dynamics shift in the sister relationship as each woman explores and exploits their sexuality, using their created fantasy worlds as an escape from the realities of their challenging real life circumstances.

We decided to watch A Good Day To Be Black & Sexy that evening. Bummer, Netflix no longer carried it. They dropped offering it in 2016. BUT on Amazon Prime we were able to rent it for $2.99. And so we called up some friends, ordered take out, and spent the evening watching A Good Day To Be Black & Sexy again. One friend summed it up pretty succinctly "I love the fact that it addresses many of the things we all deal with at one time or another and it throws it at you, all gritty and straight up, no flowers and soft music."

 

 

 


Audience Reviews

****Andrew S April 10, 2009
This six piece vignettes was a delightful gem. I really liked the voyeuristic way it was shot in, although I felt the lighting was a bad in particular parts. Sometimes the actors blended in with the surrounding darkness too much. I thought all of the actors and actress gave outstanding performances. I hope to see them again in future films I thought they were all fairly talented. loved the opening of the film and how it wasn't afraid to be raunchy. But what I liked most about this film was that the characters were well round the situations were realistic and the dialogue was spot on. Some of the reviewers found this dark??? I didn't think this film was dark at all. It just explored relationship from a more realistic point of view than audiences are use to.

+++

***Tamara T April 4, 2009
cute. nice try. definitely worth checking out.

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Brentin M ****½March 30, 2009
This is a great movie, especially for the burgeoning "grown and sexy" outfit among our generation. If you're like me, and you can't stomach the "Why Did I Get Married?" coonin' style of Tyler Perry filmmaking, you will probably appreciate the hell out of this movie, which takes a more authentic examination of the sexual and commitment-challenging tensions that exist sometimes between black men and women. It's a lil' raunchy, but not crass. There is a lot said in this movie without any dialogue at all. It's a collection of vignettes, various episodes displaying different scenarios we've all found ourselves in romantically, sexually and so forth. It's an independent film, with no stars in the cast, but all characters you'd recognize. They got it on instant play on Netflix. Grab that jawn.

+++

***** Paula P March 26, 2009
As I sat in a packed auditorium at this film's opening at Sundance 2008, I listened and joined in with the audience's loud laughter. This film provides unique perspectives in each of the six vignettes, a lot of attitude, and has a well-chosen cast and exciting soundtrack. A Good Day to be Black and Sexy is an artful film with appeal to more than Black audiences.

Dennis Dortch was nominated for Best Director 2008 and it is easy to watch this film and see why.

+++

David B March 5, 2009
"Seriously not fun to watch" Truer words were never spoken. Yes, it strives to dig into the not-so-nice side of relationships but what it comes up with is a bunch of reprehensible characters in hard-to-watch vignettes. The women are selfish and conniving, and the men are either weak or jerks (except the dude in the last segment lol. He went out cool).

And what's up with a movie that is an R-rated, frank, adult piece on sex... that's afraid to show frontal nudity? It was like it was purposely being avoided. Wack.

On a visual level, while I typically have nothing against the "cinema verite" handheld camera look, there were moments where I felt almost seasick. Too much is too much.

Despite all that, I respect the ambition to explore the dark side of relationships. It doesn't necessarily have to be "fun" to be a good film, but Neil LaBute this is not.

+++

Felix L ½ February 14, 2009
Don't let let the fun lettering on the cover/poster fool you...this movie is seriously not fun to watch. You know all that stuff you skip over when you watch porn to get to all the juicy bits? Well all that stuff is this movie but with shittier lighting and uglier people.

+++

Lee M ***½ February 11, 2009
More than just a raunchy between-the-sheets peak at modern-day black sexuality...Dortch is far less interested in where movies have been than where they've never dared to go -- into the abrasive side of sexual posturing, negotiating and politics.

+++

** Sophia S February 10, 2009
They do not interconnect. I thought it was good to see Black women, in all different hues being sexy and sexual. But overall I thought it was ok. The soundtrack was SLAMMING, though.

+++

**Patricia W December 5, 2008
Some interesting vignettes, but overall eminently "missable".

+++

Matthew W ***½December 5, 2008
So happy I'm sexy too!

 


 

 

Imdb User Review

Sex on the big screen in a new way
26 February 2008 | by whitfld64

With a little fear and trepidation, I saw this film at Sundance in Jan 2008. I ended up enjoying it immensely! Instead of one story with a single set of characters, the movie used several vignettes (each with different actors) to cover different sexual scenarios with realism, sensitivity, humor and intelligence. The camera angles and editing style lent a visceral "reality TV" feel to the movie, but never was it pornographic or in bad taste.

This set of stories have a little something for everyone because these experiences and situations are universal to being human. Two of the stories in particular still make me chuckle when I think of them because I've been there (well, almost!). Lastly, the soundtrack is a perfect match for the film. Filmmaker Dennis Dortch spent some time as a recording engineer before deciding to go into film, and this results in a soundtrack that is tight and very complimentary to the mood; a work of art in its own right.

 


 

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