Today’s release of “Miss Juneteenth” couldn’t be more welcome or better timed. As calls for making Juneteenth a federal holiday gain further momentum amidst Black Lives Matter protests stateside and abroad, Channing Godfrey Peoples’ feature directorial debut puts the celebration front and center. The mother-daughter drama follows Turquoise (Nicole Beharie, “Sleepy Hollow”), a former beauty queen whose life took unexpected twists and turns after she was named Miss Juneteenth.
Turquoise never got to walk across the stage to crown her successor, nor attend college, despite scoring a full scholarship when she won the pageant. She got pregnant, and now she’s a single mom working two jobs and behind on her bills.
Determined to prevent her daughter Kai (newcomer Alexis Chikaeze) from making the same mistakes she did, Turquoise convinces the reluctant 15-year-old to compete in the pageant. Kai recalls how the girls that claimed the crown “had all this hope and promise.” When she won the scholarship, it made her feel like she “finally had a chance. My life could have been different if I had stuck with it,” she explains. “That’s what I want for you.”
Kai, meanwhile, is unconvinced that winning Miss Juneteenth did anything for her mom and suspects it won’t do much for her, either.
While there are elaborate dresses, a talent show, and more than a couple of mean girls — both young and old — “Miss Juneteenth” isn’t a typical beauty pageant pic. This particular pageant is designed to celebrate young Black women, and to recognize an important, overdue milestone in history. As a convener tells the girls competing, “We must remember the reason for this pageant: Juneteenth is our holiday, where we recognize when the slaves of Texas finally found out they were free — two long years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The date was June 19th, 1865, now known as Juneteenth. So you see ladies,” he emphasizes, “not only will you represent your beautiful selves, but our history as well.”
“I grew up going to the Miss Juneteenth pageant and always felt inspired by seeing those beautiful young African-American women on stage. It was part of the fabric of my childhood,” Peoples told us ahead of the film’s world premiere at Sundance. “I also grew up in the same tight-knit Texas community in which the film is set. It is in that community that women like Turquoise live who are hardworking, loving, and driven. Those are the women that inspired this story.”
The filmmaker emphasized that she’d “love for people to experience a world not often seen on screen” and “for people to see Turquoise’s strength and determination borne out of her love for her daughter and ultimately herself.”
The film honors that deep and abiding love for her daughter without doing Turquoise the disservice of making her a perfect person or mom. She’s spent far too long waiting for Kai’s father to grow into the man she needs him to be, and she’s so intent on building a better future for Kai that, at times, she struggles to see and hear what Kai herself wants. One of the film’s most moving scenes comes during the talent portion of the Miss Juneteenth pageant, when Kai manages to pay tribute to her mom while simultaneously honoring her own individuality.
“Miss Juneteenth” took home the Lone Star Award from SXSW Film Festival for best film from the state of Texas. The film is now available on VOD.
