Sundance Report: Tayarisha Poe’s “Selah and the Spades” explores underground life at an elite boarding school
Filmmaker Tayarisha Poe is bringing her a provocative coming of age drama about students of color at an elite boarding school to Sundance this Sunday Jan. 27.
Poe told Women in Hollywood she was inspired to create Selah and the Spades based on her own boarding school experience.
“I found the experience of attending boarding school to be, in retrospect, incredibly specific and fascinatingly odd. I wanted to capture the essence of that experience while also crafting a story that was filled with kids who looked like me and who did — to be frank — whatever the fuck they wanted to do,” she said.
“I wanted to write a story starring a bunch of kids of color who were limited only by themselves. I wanted them to be powerful and dangerous and larger than life.”
The highly anticipated film about the secret lives of underground organizations at an elite boarding school stars Lovie Simone along with Jesse Williams, Gina Torres, Jharrel Jerome, Celeste O’Connor and Ana Mulvoy-Ten.
The film, set in an elite Pennsylvania boarding school called the Haldwell, reportedly centers around five factions that run the student body.
The film synopsis reads:
“With the end of the school year approaching, Selah is confronted with the reality of a future without control…And as Paloma journeys deeper into The Spades, she begins to own her new responsibilities and lead in a different direction from her predecessor,” states the site. “The student begins to outshine the master, and Selah becomes determined to reassert her power, no matter the cost.”
“Of Haldwell student body’s five factions — The Spades, The Sea, The Skins, The Bobbies, and The Prefects factions — Selah runs the most dominant, The Spades, who cater to the most classic of vices and supply students with coveted, illegal alcohol and pills. As the school year comes to an end, Selah must contend with the reality that she will lose control of The Spades, with sophomore upstart Paloma making waves. As the student begins to outshine the teacher, Selah becomes determined to reassert her power, no matter the cost.”
“I am always eager to see stories about the marginalia of black life, and more generally about the minutiae of being a human being,” the Poe said in a recent interview with IndieWire.
“In film, in most Western storytelling, there is this false, persistent assumption that the relatable ‘every man’ story can only be successful — and therefore must only be told — with white characters at the center of them. And that’s just not my jam.”
Check out the trailer.
