Alma's Rainbow (DVD)
Alma’s Rainbow is a coming-of-age comedy-drama about three Black women living in Brooklyn. Ayoka Chenzira’s feature film explores the life of teenager Rainbow Gold (Victoria Gabrielle Platt) who is entering womanhood and navigating conversations and experiences around standards of beauty, self-image, and the rights women have over their bodies. Rainbow attends a strict parochial school, studies dance, and is just becoming aware of boys. She lives with her strait-laced mother Alma Gold (Kim Weston-Moran), who runs a beauty parlor in the parlor of their home. When Alma’s free-spirited sister Ruby (Mizan Kirby) arrives from Paris after a 10-year absence, the sisters clash over what constitutes the “proper” direction Rainbow’s life should take. Alma has fooled herself into believing she has no need of male companionship and advises her daughter to follow her example. Ruby encourages both her niece and her sister to embrace life – and love – fully and joyfully. Alma’s Rainbow highlights a multi-layered Black women’s world where the characters live, love, and wrestle with what it means to exert and exercise their agency. Restoration by the Academy Film Archive, Film Foundation, and Milestone Films. Restoration supervised by Mark Toscano. Funding provided by The Film Foundation and Hobson Lucas Family Foundation.
DVD Extras Include:DISC 1
- • Panel discussion after world premiere of 4K restoration at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
- • Ayoka Chenzira on Alma’s Rainbow (oral history recorded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences)
- • Peggy Dillard Toone on Alma’s Rainbow
DISC 2
- • Short Films by Ayoka Chenzira: Sylvilla: They Dance to Her Drum / Hairpiece: A Film for Nappy Headed People / The Lure and the Lore / Zajota and the Boogie Spirit / Pull Your Head to the Moon: Stories of Creole Women / Williamswood / MOTV (My Own TV) / Snowfire / In the Rivers of Mercy Angst / HERadventure