This Tina Turner tribute, LGBTQ+ History Month celebration and special Valentine screening of Pretty Red Dress is hosted by The New Black Film Collective and University of Brighton’s Donor Research to raise awareness of blood donation eligibility for men within the LGBTQ+ community.
Pretty Red Dress follows Travis as he 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 Tina Turner 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.
This screening is preceded by Ordinary - directed by Altas O Phoenix and presented by our partner, FilmPride. This short film is a patchwork quilt of intersecting identities, weaving together multiple storylines to explore the purpose of identifiers and their meaning. Atlas questions whether identifiers truly identify anyone.
