Tickets on sale Friday, August 13, at 8 am CT
Thursday, August 26, 2021
6:30 pm Doors // 7:30 pm Show
$15 Advance General Admission
All Ages
Ticket sales are final and non-refundable
The Parkway is pleased to announce its first post-pandemic movie premiere — an exclusive Minneapolis screening (two nights only) of Phil Harder's award-winning feature-length film, Tuscaloosa.
Compelling performances — The Hollywood Reporter
The period is beautifully realized — Film Threat
Set in the sweltering heat of 1972 Alabama, Tuscaloosa is a timely narrative dealing with complex issues of race, class, and gender. The Minnesota-made film stars Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things, Velvet Buzzsaw, I Believe in Unicorns), Tate Donovan (Argo, Hercules, Manchester By The Sea), Devon Bostick (Okja, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Adoration, The 100), and YG (Billboard Top 100 Recording Artist). Having previously played festivals around the globe (US, UK, Italy, Spain, India, Peru, Brazil) the film has won numerous awards for best feature, best period piece, best actor/actress, best use of music, and more.
Tuscaloosa now comes home to Minneapolis for a debut premiere with an introduction, Q&A, and meet & greet with director Phil Harder and executive producers Patrick Riley and Erik Helgeson.
1972. Vietnam war protests and racial tension is sizzling in the late summer heat of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Billy Mitchell (Devon Bostick, The 100, Diary of a Wimpy Kid), a recent college graduate, spends the summer working on the lush grounds of an old world mental institution run by his psychiatrist father (Tate Donovan, Argo). Billy falls in love with Virginia (Natalia Dyer, Stranger Things), a patient who is possibly crazy, or perhaps the only sane person Billy has in his world. Billy’s best friend Nigel (Marchánt Davis) becomes involved with a radical civil rights activist (YG) against Tuscaloosa’s white power elite, which includes Billy’s father. Billy is torn between Nigel, his father and his cronies, and Virginia, who is planning her escape with or without Billy.
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Since its release in 2020, Tuscaloosa has received numerous accolades at film festival around the globe. But due to the pandemic, the film never had a hometown Minneapolis debut. Until now.
Director Phil Harder explains, As director, I embraced the challenge of bringing to life the novel ‘Tuscaloosa,’ that I had read in the 90's. The story had 'white privilege' — a term I had not been familiar with as it was not widely used back then. The story also dealt with issues like race, class, sexuality and authority that are just as relevant today.
This story is set in Alabama in 1972, and we were able to create authentic locations representative of the south here in Minnesota — in Northfield, the institution and town; in Minneapolis, the riverbank, bbq shack, drive-in, papa's house and the inside of the police station; in Duluth, Lake Superior was a stand-in for the Gulf of Mexico.
Making a movie you create a world of the story in itself. We considered filming part of it in Alabama or using cutaways of local spots down there but that would look different than the world we created here for the story. If you look closely, some of the trees are different than in Alabama but most people would never know.
These are some of the challenges of making a totally independent film. Nearly all of the filming, production and financing was by people in Minnesota.
The pandemic delayed the film's premiere after working on the film for many months; we had a release date scheduled March 13, 2020. It premiered in Beverly Hills and 10 other US cities that night. Unfortunately, that was the day LA County put in capacity limits at theaters. The good news was we sold out our Beverly Hills premiere to capacity, but bad news was the theater capacity was only 10 people.
We are so excited to now have the opportunity to bring the film to The Parkway and Twin Cities audiences.