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| Part of the ensemble cast of "Dear White People" |
I’d been looking forward to seeing writer/director Justin Simien’s feature film debut, “Dear White People,” for quite some time now. After gaining steam at Sundance earlier this year, it played as the final film at the 2014 Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF). I was on staff at the time for ATLFF, and the hype and excitement for this film, it was, quite literally, more than we could handle. We had to turn people away, giving them only our most syruped and sincere apologies as we walked them back out the front doors; we brought additional chairs into the theatre, chairs that were cumbersome and heavy and strangely angular (I know, I carried some); some staff and crew were reduced to standing in the back desperate to catch even a small glimpse. The theatre was vibrating with anticipatory energy, an extremely tangible excitement. I, unfortunately, had to attend to other business, what with me being on staff and all, so I wasn’t able to sit down and watch.
