“It’s about more than just color. It’s about black people, poor people, everybody at the bottom.” With inspiration fueled by rage, young under-privileged high school student Starr Carter speaks these passionate lines at the end of the first trailer for The Hate U Give. Played by Everything, Everything’s Amandla Stenberg, Starr Carter faces the repugnant legacy of injustice, as she witnesses the death of a childhood friend after a fatal encounter with the police. Feeling pressure from her family, friends, community, and the wide scope of society as a whole, The Hate U Give tells the story of Carter’s journey to find and weaponize her voice in order to enact social change.
Made accessible with obvious parallels to our modern and exponentially divisive political climate, The Hate U Give seems to promise an essential perspective for our troubled times. With Audrey Wells’ screenplay based on Angie Thomas’ novel of the same title, the film is directed by thoughtful director George Tillman Jr., whose best known for Soul Food and Notorious as well as a handful of episodes of This Is Us. Alongside Amandla Stenberg, The Hate U Give stars K.J Apa, Algee Smith, Regina Hall, Anthony Mackie, Sabrina Carpenter, Common, and Issa Rae.
Courtesy of 20th Century Fox, The Hate U Give will hit theaters October 19th. Check out the first trailer below, following the synopsis.
Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black, neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white, prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right. THE HATE U GIVE is based on the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Angie Thomas and stars Amandla Stenberg as Starr, with Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Issa Rae, KJ Apa, Algee Smith, Sabrina Carpenter, Common and Anthony Mackie.