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The Hate U Give director
George Tillman, Jr.
By Iain Blair
The Hate U Give, which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, has immediately generated big Oscar buzz.
This ripped-from-the-headlines story — which scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes — is a work
of fiction based on the New York Times bestseller of the same name by Angie Thomas. It features Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) as Starr, a 16-year-old who witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend by a police officer.
Starr lives in a working-class community with her close-knit family. Her father, Maverick (Russell Hornsby), is a former gang member who once served time in prison. Now a family man and valued member of the community, Maverick owns the local grocery store. Starr’s mother Lisa (Regina Hall) is a nurse, and half-brother Seven (Lamar Johnson) and younger brother Sekani (TJ Wright) complete the family.
Dismayed by the academic shortcomings of schools in their community, and wanting to give their children better opportunities, Lisa and Maverick enroll Starr and her siblings in a predominantly white school. The kids then find themselves having to juggle two very different worlds.
Starr, whose two best school friends and boyfriend are white, seems able to compartmentalize her life until everything changes when she witnesses the shooting death of her friend Khalil during a traffic stop. As the sole witness, Starr must choose between speaking up for her friend or remaining silent. Telling the truth could also endanger herself and her family by implicating the violent local drug lord whom Khalil worked for.
The Hate U Give is deftly and intelligently directed by George Tillman, Jr., whose credits include Soul Food, Notorious and Men of Honor. The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Mihai Malaimare Jr. (The Master), production designer William Arnold (Magnolia), editors Craig Hayes (Django Unchained) and Alex Blatt (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and composer Dustin O’Halloran (Lion).
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