Alma’s Rainbow

An essential film in the ‘90s Black cinema canon, ALMA’S RAINBOW was written, directed, and produced by acclaimed film and video artist Ayoka Chenzira, one of the first African Americans to teach film production in higher education and among the first African-American woman animators.

A coming-of-age comedy-drama about three African American women living in Brooklyn, ALMA’S RAINBOW explores the life of teenager Rainbow Gold (Victoria Gabrielle Platt) as she enters womanhood and navigates standards of beauty, self-image, and the rights women have over their bodies. Rainbow attends a strict parochial school, studies dance, and lives with her straitlaced mother Alma (Kim Weston-Moran), who runs a hair salon in the parlor of their home and disapproves of her daughter’s newfound interest in boys. When Alma’s free-spirited sister Ruby (Mizan Kirby) returns from Paris after a ten-year absence, the sisters clash over what constitutes the ‘proper’ direction for Rainbow’s life. ALMA’S RAINBOW highlights a multi-layered Black women’s world where the characters live, love, and wrestle with what it means to exert and exercise their agency. – KinoLorber