Best First Feature Award given to the director and producer.

Credits

Director: Elegance Bratton

Producers: Effie T. Brown, Chester Algernal Gordon

Synopsis

A young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.