Who do you cast in a family drama? For filmmaker Malcolm Washington, the answer was obvious.
The CULTURED cover star’s feature debut, The Piano Lesson, adapts August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play for the screen. It also stars Washington's brother, John David, and sees his father, Denzel, take on the role of producer.
Onscreen, following the Great Depression a pair of siblings in Pittsburgh are in a contentious battle over their family’s heirloom piano. With designs carved by an enslaved ancestor, the family debates whether this is a legacy they want to live with, or remember. Even their uncle—played by Samuel L. Jackson—cannot quell their dispute.
"The film is so personal to me. It’s my family’s stories funneled into this ghost story," Washington told Njideka Akunyili Crosby in their cover feature for CULTURED's new Artists on Artists issue. "So when it was finished, my metric for its success was how my family—the crew and actors too—felt about it." When edits were wrapped, the director brought the extended cast and crew together for a screening, finding solace in their joy seeing the project come together.
Last Friday, CULTURED’s VIP Club got a similar opportunity as John David, Malcolm, composer Alexandre Desplat, and co-writer Virgil Williams joined attendees for an exclusive screening with Film Independent that follows the film's debut at the Telluride Film Festival and subsequent international release at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Piano Lesson, in select theaters now, will be available on Netflix Nov. 22, but for more insider screenings and cultural events, check out the VIP Club here.
