“Alma’s Rainbow” is getting a 4K restoration. A press release announced that Kino Lorber will release a new version of Ayoka Chenzira’s 1994 feature, presented by “Daughters of the Dust” filmmaker Julie Dash and restored by Milestone Films, the Academy Film Archive, and The Film Foundation.
The coming-of-age story is set in Brooklyn and focuses on a teenage girl’s (Victoria Gabrielle Platt) relationships with her mother (Kim Weston-Moran) and aunt (Mizan Kirbyas) as she “enters womanhood and navigates standards of beauty, self-image, and the rights women have over their bodies,” per the film’s synopsis.
Described as highlighting a “multi-layered Black women’s world where the characters live, love, and wrestle with what it means to exert and exercise their agency,” “Alma’s Rainbow” was written, directed, and produced by Chenzira, who the press release notes was “one of the first African Americans to teach film production in higher education and among the first African American woman animators.”
“Someone once told me that filmmakers eventually fall out of love with their films as they move on with their careers. I have never felt this way about my work because with each project, I learn something new about myself as an artist and as a person. So I am thrilled that my independent film, ‘Alma’s Rainbow,’ was restored by Milestone, a company with a long history of supporting the visions and expressions of filmmakers,” said Chenzira.
The restoration of “Alma’s Rainbow” will make its world premiere at BAMCinemafest June 27 with Chenzira in attendance. The event will include a screening of a new 4K restoration of her short film “Hair Piece: A Film For Nappy-Headed People.”
Kino Lorber will release “Alma’s Rainbow” theatrically July 29 and represent its worldwide rights and launch international sales at Cannes.
Chenzira’s other credits include episodes of “Queen Sugar,” “Trinkets,” and the upcoming small-screen reboot of Penny Marshall’s beloved baseball pic “A League of Their Own.” The press release notes that she’s currently in production on the series adaptation of Octavia Butler’s sci-fi classic “Kindred.”
