Frederick Douglass Boulevard aka Food & Drink Boulevard aka F.D.B

M.H.G.A. -- Make Harlem Great Again (by any schemes necessary)

Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Post-Production
Writer/Director/Actor: Washington Kirk
Executive Producer: Miles Hodges
Actor: Ron Canada
 
Email: foodanddrinkboulevard@gmail.com
Website: foodanddrinkboulevard.com
Facebook: @FoodandDrinkBoulevard
 
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Logline

Malcolm Jamal Turner, a struggling writer living in Harlem fed up with the neighborhood’s changing demographics, concocts a ludicrous scheme to “de-gentrify” it.

Synopsis

Malcolm’s journey over the course of the series can be captured by slight revision to Vince Gilligan’s famous formulation of Walter White’s: How does Theo Huxtable (the happy-go-lucky, privileged son in The Cosby Show, played by actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner) become something like a modern-day Stokely Carmichael? Indeed, if the title weren’t already obnoxiously long, an additional moniker could be “aka Breaking Righteous.”
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Washington Kirk – Writer/Director/Actor
Washington Kirk is a writer, director, and performer raised in a Virginia suburb forgettable if not for its proximity to a Great Swamp. Kirk creates visceral, personal works for the small and big screens as well as the stage. A participant in the lesser-known Late Migration North, Kirk now resides in Harlem with his wife and two kids.

Filmmaking honors & screenings (selected): Sundance New Voices Lab Finalist, The Gotham Project Market, Urbanworld, ABFF (PLAY featured filmmaker), MVAAFF, Bushwick (Special Jury Prize), Harlem International (Spotlight Award), Black Harvest, Austin, NOLA, SeriesFest (Best Drama, Best Performance in a Drama, Best Director).

As an actor (selected). TV: Divorce (HBO), The Breaks (VH-1). Film: A Ride to Remember (ALTFF Best Actor of Festival, Fall 2022). MFA, UCSD.

Miles Hodges – Executive Producer
Miles Hodges is the Head of Content Acquisition at Luminary Media and an Executive Producer of The Midnight Miracle Podcast featuring Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli, and yasiin bey (NY Times’ Best 10 Podcasts of 2021, Apple Podcasts’ Best Shows of 2021). A celebrated performer in his own right, Hodges is the founder of the Harlem spoken word collective Strivers Row. His work has been featured on HBO and at The Apollo Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center Washington DC, The Smithsonian Museum, and The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He has been named one of The Root’s 100 Futurists.

Ron Canada – Actor
Ron Canada is an American actor with a long career in television, film, and onstage. He is known primarily for his work in Cinderella Man, Wedding Crashers, and his recurring role as Under Secretary of State Ted Barrow on The West Wing. Notable stage credits include Zooman and The Sign at Signature and Headstrong at EST (Audelco Award nomination). In 2018 he appeared on Broadway in Network with Bryan Cranston, Tony Goldwyn, and Tatiana Maslany. Ron is the second actor to play the role of Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Fences (Geva, 1986).

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Contact

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