Woke Women Mixtape

Woke Women Mixtape: 👏
BKPI, episodes 1–3, dir. Hye Yun Park, 2017 USA, total runtime 40 min. 😐 West Coast premiere
One Nine Five Lewis, ep. 1–5, dir. Chanelle Aponte-Pearson, 2016 USA, total runtime 47 min. 👏 Bay Area premiere
Saturday, June 17, 6:30 p.m., Roxie Theatre
Second screening added: Saturday, June 24, 11:30 a.m., Roxie Theatre

BKPI: Mo (Hye Yun Park) and Dawn (Celiné Justice) are on the case

BKPI is the story of Mo, Dawn, and Iram, three friends who decide to become “ruthless, relentless and uncertified” private investi­ga­tors after foiling an attempted crime. It feels like a muddle of silliness and serious drama that still needs to find itself. There is also almost no particularly LGBT content: one of the characters is a lesbian, which figures in one of the plot lines. All of the characters are decidedly feminist, opposed to racism, unfettered capitalism, and gentrification, but placing this in an LGBTQ film festival is honestly a bit of a stretch. Recommended for audiences yearning for feminist fantasy action hero cartoons come to life, but rather more tepidly for general audiences. That said, come to the show for the second bill, even if you’re less enthused about the first. • IMDb page • Facebook • official website •

One Nine Five Lewis (listed in the program guide as 195 Lewis, but the opening credits spell it out) is a serial drama focusing on a lesbian couple in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy) neighborhood of Brooklyn and their friends and lovers. It starts out a little bit rough around the edges, but gets noticeably better over the course of five episodes. The characters are interesting and well drawn, placed into compelling situations, and the dialog is sharp, with a good balance of drama and humor. If you’re looking for queer women of color telling their own story, this is a good choice. Highly recom­mended. • IMDb page • Facebook • trailer • official website •

Woke Women trivia: 195 Lewis Avenue in Brooklyn is at the corner of Lewis and Greene, a mere three blocks from 985 Greene Avenue, the hub of the action in BKPI.