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Exclusive: Bulgarian actress Irmena Chichikova, seen recently in SXSW 2024 breakout The Black Sea, has signed with L.A.-based boutique management and production company Rewind.

Chichikova appeared opposite Derrick B. Harden in his critically acclaimed American-Bulgarian comedy The Black Sea, co-directed with Crystal Moselle, revolving around a charismatic dreamer from Brooklyn who inadvertently ends up as the only Black person in a small town on the Black Sea in Eastern Europe.

The film was acquired by Metrograph Pictures for the U.S. shortly after its SXSW run and has just opened in L.A. on December 13.

Chichikova previously made her U.S. debut in 2023 in a recurring role in Marvel’s miniseries Secret Invasion, alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Emilia Clarke.

She also starred in the drama Viktoria, which made its debut in the World Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and won the Golden Rose National Film Festival...

It’s a quiet but quality indie weekend led by documentaries and a few features in limited release as Gladiator 2 and Wicked storm in, other independents hold over, and ahead of anticipated specialty debuts next week like Queer, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig and Maria.

Docs out today follow artists in Ukraine, women in Afghanistan, South African photographer Ernest Cole and Amichai Lau-Lavie, a gay Israeli descendant of rabbis who becomes one himself. Narrative features include Hong Sangoo’ A Traveler’s Needs, animated Flow and The Black Sea.

Porcelain War from Picturehouse, the Sundance Grand Jury/U.S. Documentary Award winner that just screened at Doc NYC, opens at NYC’s IFC Center. Filmmakers Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev and participant Anya Stasenko are on hand for Q&As with award-winning producer Paula DuPré Pesman.

Set amid the chaos and destruction of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the...

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...

For a moment, imagine the panic, the frustration, the fish-out-of-water sensation that can only accompany someone stranded in a country where the native tongue is anything but your own, and the reason for your visit has been rendered essentially unnecessary not long after your landing gear touches the ground. This is the basic setup to “The Black Sea,” an unusual film from co-directors Crystal Moselle and Derrick B.

Continue reading ‘The Black Sea’ Review: A Brooklyn Transplant Starts Over In This Aimless Bulgarian Journey at The Playlist.

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 Metrograph empire is expanding from screen to page.

Metrograph announced a new biannual print publication, titled “The Metrograph,” which will cater to cinephiles and cultural connoisseurs alike. Since its founding in 2016, Metrograph has opened beloved theater Metrograph NYC, which also houses a bookstore and The Commissary restaurant, as well as launched distribution company Metrograph Pictures. Metrograph Pictures is led by former Oscilloscope and A24 executive David Laub, who previously announced that Metrograph should target 10 film releases per year with features like “Good One,” “The Black Sea,” “Santosh,” “The Kingdom,” “Gazer,” “April,” and “Miroirs No. 3” among the upcoming slate. Metrograph additionally has an At Home streaming platform and online Journal.

Now, Metrograph is expanding into print with a star-studded creative team launching “The Metrograph.”

“The Sweet East” screenwriter and former Village Voice writer Nick Pinkerton is the Editor-At-Large, whose interview with “Juror #2” director Clint Eastwood will be the tentpole of the first issue.

"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.

Launched in 2019, Metrograph Pictures is the distributing arm of NYC’s Metrograph theater, with classics in its catalog from auteurs like Claire Denis, Eric Rohmer, and Hou Hsaio-Hsien, among others. But the independent distributor wants in on new releases too, and they’re hoping a recent pick up will accelerate that process. Enter “The Black Sea,” Derrick B. Harden and Crystal Moselle‘s film from SXSW this year.

Continue reading ‘The Black Sea’ Trailer: Derrick B. Harden Stars In & Co-Directs American-Bulgarian Dramedy at The Playlist.

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...

Exclusive: Metrograph Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to The Black Sea, the offbeat comedy from Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden which debuted at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Metrograph will release the pic theatrically later this year.

Inspired by Harden’s travels to Bulgaria, and improvised by Harden and its Bulgarian cast, The Black Sea traces the journey of a charismatic dreamer from Brooklyn who inadvertently ends up as the only Black person in a small town on the Black Sea in Eastern Europe. While initially, all he wants is to get home, he becomes increasingly drawn to the unorthodox characters and unexpected connections he finds.

UTA Independent Film Group negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers. The film was produced by Izabella Tzenkova, Kotva Films, and GiveThanks. Executive producers include Andrea Leibof, Cameron Brody, Dana Høegh, Jonas Carpignano, Josh Peters, Robina Riccitiello, Ted Hope, and Ted Wright.