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Parallel Sons |
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(1995,
USA)
Director:
Young, John G.
Producer:
Spione, James, and Nancy Larsen
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Set in a sleepy upstate New York town, where a cup of coffee is still thirty-five cents and cross burning is a mundane weekend pastime, Parallel Sons follows the chance meeting of Seth (Gabriel Mick), an aspiring young white artist, and Knowledge (Lawrence Mason), an African-American correctional-facility escapee. Despite the brutal circumstances of their introduction--the wounded Knowledge attempts to rob the diner where Seth works nights--their lives become irreversibly entangled when Seth hides Knowledge in the woods, safe from the racist sheriff, and nurses him back to health. But Seth's act of kindness goes beyond compassion, for Seth's personal world is fueled by the romanticized notion of what it is to be young and black from the inner city. His art is heavily influenced by graffiti. He can lip synch to rap without missing a beat. He wears gangsta clothes and his hair in dreads, albeit blond. Knowledge becomes more than a patient as they both tentatively discover a far deeper commonality drawing them closer together. When a sudden accident drives them further away from the law, they embark on a desperate journey in search of freedom.Strung taut with dramatic and sexual tension, Parallel Sons proves first-time feature director John G. Young a skilled master of cinematic storytelling. Speaking to anyone who has longed to escape from where they came but fears where they might go, Parallel Sons is more about kindness, compassion, and the need to be loved than it is about the differences that make one man white and the other black. Winner of the 1995 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Audience Award for Best Feature.
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