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For most of its runtime, Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden’s fish-out-of-water non-fiction hybrid The Black Sea teeters on the edge of being too cute. But Harden is the variable––the lead performer whose dynamic with both actors and non-actors skirts the right side of the line between intuition and invention. It’s a line that’s also been the driving cinematic force of Moselle’s insider approach to the stories of outsiders. And throughout her career, one of her greatest skills has been her eye for not only the right story, but the right storytellers.

Harden plays Khalid (a loose version of Harden’s own persona), a magnetic Black Brooklynite who begins the film out of credit with everyone in the borough who’s lent him a dollar for a failed scheme. Out of opportunities, Khalid takes a one-way flight to a small coastal Bulgarian town after responding...

Imagine visiting a small foreign territory and being showered with celebrity-status attention. Maybe the locals mistake you for a certain North American icon. Or they're just starstruck by the abnormal presence of such a distinctive figure sticking out like a sore thumb in their otherwise familiar community. This is what happened to the filmmakers behind The Black Sea.

According to their directors' statement, when they traveled to Bulgaria and watched as its residents flocked to Derrick B. Harden, presumably under the impression that such an impressively imposing presence was that of an A-list movie star or musical artist. Instead, the Hollywood newcomer was starring in his first feature film, The Black Sea, named after one of Bulgaria's bodies of water and by the looks of it, this certainly won't be Harden's last starring vehicle.

Directed by Harden and Crystal Moselle, the remarkably poetic new drama has made the festival rounds...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during SXSW 2024. Metrograph Pictures releases “The Black Sea” in theaters on November 22.

American indie filmmaker Crystal Moselle has been on both sides of the scripted/non-scripted aisle of storytelling. Her 2015 documentary “The Wolfpack,” about six Angulo brothers confined to a Lower East Side New York housing project apartment while passing their days reenacting scenes from their favorite movies, won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance that year. Her Gotham-nominated feature “Skate Kitchen” took a scripted narrative approach to rolling back the ins and outs of a chaotic subculture of female skateboarders, all coming of age, in New York City. Her latest feature “The Black Sea,” co-directed by the film’s star Derrick B. Harden, takes an entirely unscripted approach to the drama of a Brooklyn barista, Khalid (also played by Harden), with dreams of his own left stranded in Bulgaria,...

The Wolfpack director Crystal Moselle showed a deft hand in bringing a documentary-like authenticity to her drama Skate Kitchen. She’s now expanding those skills, heading out of NYC with The Black Sea, co-directed and starring Derrick B. Harden in a fish-out-of-water tale following a Brooklynite making waves in Bulgaria. Largely improvised with a cast also including Irmena Chichikova, Samuel Finzi, and Stoyo Mirkov, the film is a humorous, entertaining look at culture clashes and trying to find a sense of community.

Ahead of a theatrical release from Metrograph Pictures beginning on November 22, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the first poster for the film, which premiered earlier this year at SXSW and had a robust festival tour including Seattle, Nashville, Mill Valley, Middleburg, San Diego, and Philadelphia, Virginia, and Denver film festivals.

Here’s the synopsis: “Khalid, a charismatic big dreamer from Brooklyn, gets stuck in a small town...

"A cinematic slam poem." Metrograph Pictures has unveiled an official trailer for a film called The Black Sea, co-directed by NYC filmmaker Crystal Moselle after The Wolfpack and Skate Kitchen. This premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, and it also played at the Seattle and Nashville Film Fests. Inspired by Derrick B. Harden's travels to Bulgaria, The Black Sea is the transformative journey of a man who finds unexpected connections in a small coastal Eastern European town even as he finds himself to be the only black person around. Starring Derrick B. Harden as Khalid (he also co-directed this), Irmena Chichikova, Samuel Finzi, and Stoyo Mirkov. One review nicely states: "For Harden, it's an impressive debut that raises questions about the difference between a tourist, refugee, and immigrant, and explores how sometimes you have to travel a long physical distance to find what’s always been inside yourself.

Indie filmmaker Crystal Moselle is deepening her narrative feature style with a personal story, blending the lines between truth and fiction with a cinema verité approach.

Moselle, who made her directorial debut with buzzy 2015 documentary “The Wolfpack,” which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, gained further street cred with her Gotham-nominated feature “Skate Kitchen,” starring Jaden Smith.

Moselle now co-directs “The Black Sea” with the film’s lead star, rapper/musician Derrick B. Harden.

“The Black Sea” has an unscripted style while centering on Brooklyn barista Khalid (Harden), who upends his life to move to Bulgaria amid a catfishing mishap. The official synopsis reads: “What happens when a charismatic big dreamer gets stuck in a small town on the Black Sea? A Bulgarian fortune teller once said the touch of a black man will cure you. That’s where Khalid comes in, a charismatic guy from Brooklyn who...

The SXSW Film & TV Festival said Wednesday that Universal’s The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling will serve as the 2024 edition’s Centerpiece film, and Netflix’s 3 Body Problem from David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and Alexander Woo will open the fest’s opening-night TV premiere.

The news comes as the festival, whose 31st edition runs March 8-16 in Austin, unveiled first titles in its Feature and Short Competitions, Midnighters, Global and Xr Experience categories. See the list below, which includes berths for the world premiere of Pamela Adlon’s Babes, the Daisy Ridley-starring Magpie, Prentice Penny’s docuseries Black Twitter, Season 3 of Hacks and the final season of Star Trek: Discovery.

Organizers said today that more titles, including the opening- and closing-night films, will be announced early next month across Headliner, Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Visions, Midnighter, Global, 24 Beats Per Second,...

The 2024 SXSW Film and TV Festival has announced its lineup, with Netflix’s splashy sci-fi series 3 Body Problem opening the fest and the Ryan Gosling and Emily Bunt action comedy The Fall Guy acting as a centerpiece screening.

David Benioff and Dan Weiss are behind 3 Body Problem, based on the book of the same name. David Leitch directed the Universal feature about a Hollywood stuntman (Gosling) who is tasked with tracking down the star of the latest movie he is working on.

The Pamela Adlon movie Babes will also act as a centerpiece screening. The narrative competition features include Crystal Moselle’s latest, The Black Sea, and Barbie Ferreira starrer Bob Trevino Likes It. Elsewhere in the lineup are a Cheech and Chong doc, Tommy Dorfman’s directorial debut, Lilly Singh comedy Doin’ It, and My Dead Friend Zoe, exec produced by NFL star Travis Kelce.

The film...