Female Film Critics 24/375
Writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples’s feature debut is a beautiful cinematic experience, bursting with a gorgeous sense of place and character the likes of which are rarer onscreen than they should be. Nicole Beharie brings a strength and a weariness to Turquoise Jones, a former beauty queen and single mom trying to make a better life for her teen daughter.
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In a time when too much of the world is very belatedly waking up to the significance of Juneteenth — the holiday marking the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Texas finally learned of Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 Emancipation Proclamation — Channing Godfrey Peoples’ coming-of-age drama Miss Juneteenth offers a thoughtful, relevant glimpse inside Black life in Texas more than 150 years after that momentous day.
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Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth is a beautiful exploration into the dreams we have for our children and the lengths we go to make sure they are realized. Nicole Beharie delivers a phenomenal performance as her character explores the regrets of her life choices while also showing how Black women continue to overcome no matter what life brings their way. Peoples delivers a promising debut that will leave many excited to see what is next in her bright career.
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Miss Juneteenth is about former pageant winner Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie), a single mom, who struggles to keep the lights on by working two jobs. She has a bone-deep desire to see her beloved 15-year-old daughter Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) take the Miss Juneteenth throne, and use it to thrive in ways she herself each could not.
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There are many films about parents who want their offspring to fulfill the youthful dreams that they never achieved, but Miss Juneteenth brings extra emotion because the characters live in an underserved Black community where most residents just scrape by. The pageant provides a coveted college scholarship for the winner. Director Channing Godfrey Peoples injects enough atmosphere on screen to make us feel for these folks and their travails.
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Sundance Film Festival featured many films directed by black women. Each film had a different theme and inspiration. Each of the filmmakers had a different point of entry into filmmaking. Some went to film school others went out on a whim, but each brought a strong personal vision and compelling story to the screen, showing that the black experience is not monolithic, but very global. That’s the beauty of filmmaking.
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