Merawi Gerima grew up in northeast Washington D.C., an area that plays prominently in his first feature “Residue,” about a film student named Jay who returns home after a stint at USC film school to find his neighborhood gentrified and his family and friends contending with racist hostility from new white neighbors.
Just like Jay, Gerima went to USC.
He wrote and directed “Residue” to give a voice to his eviscerated neighborhood’s survivors, including himself.After making a splash at Slamdance, “Residue” just launched internationally at the Venice Film Festival in the independent Venice Days section, where it scored a special mention.
The film, which has been acquired for the U.S.
by Ava DuVernay’s film company, Array, will drop on Netflix on Sept.
17 in the U.S.
and also play in select Stateside theaters.In Venice, Gerima spoke to Variety about his close personal connection to
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