BHM 365 | BLACK LENS #2: PRETTY RED DRESS (15)

7:00pm, Thursday 19th October 2023

Join us to enjoy this excellent debut feature from writer and director Dionne Edwards.

Travis has just been released from prison and it quickly becomes apparent that everything has changed while he’s been gone.

While girlfriend Candice is on the up and auditioning to star in a musical, teenage daughter Kenisha is struggling in school and her relationship with her mum is tense. When Travis buys Candice her dream dress for an audition, rather than smoothing over the family’s problems, it ends up creating even more… As secrets and desires left unsaid threaten to spill out, Travis is forced to re-examine who he is and how he wants to be perceived in the world.

A debut feature from writer and director Dionne Edwards, Pretty Red Dress has breakthrough performances from Natey Jones (National Theatre Live: Small Island), newcomer Temilola Olatunbosun, and the chart-topping singer and West End actor Alexandra Burke in her first film role.

“Pretty Red Dress’s texture borrows from films like Babylon (1980) and Saturday Night Fever (1977), but the story itself wasn’t inspired by any one film. I was pulling from little innocuous things I’d seen as a child.

“A big part of childhood is trying to replicate the routines of our parents – so naturally cross-dressing comes into the picture. I remember some of my boy cousins really enjoyed putting on nail varnish when they were around five years old. But as you grow older, those innocent curiosities are met with opposition, causing us to stop ourselves from exploring things that we might be interested in.” Dionne Edwards

PRETTY RED DRESS trailer (viewer discretion advised – suitable for 15+ years old only)

Musical and emotive with superb central performances, Pretty Red Dress is a South London set drama that fills heart and soul.