The U.S. premiere of writer-director Minhal Baig’s “We Grown Now” — a gentle, powerful coming-of-age gem set in 1992, detailing the friendship of two boys growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project — opens the Chicago International Film Festival Oct. 11, festival officials announced Wednesday.
Baig filmed parts of “Hala” in Rogers Park, and at Northside College Prep high school, which she attended a few years earlier. Her new film is centered in the now-demolished Cabrini-Green high-rises, a controversial product of the Chicago Housing Authority.Blake Cameron James plays a resident of the Cabrini-Green housing projects in 1992 Chicago in"We Grown Now." - Original Credit:
Baig’s story focuses on 10-year-old Malik , whose mother Delores and Mississippi-born grandmother face a life-altering decision to move, or not, after an escalation in violence, fatalities and mistrust. One scene, powerfully rendered, depicts a swarm of Chicago police going door to door, searching for drugs. “They’re treating us like we’re criminals,” Smollett’s character says at one point, under her breath. “Like roaches in our own home.
It’ll make a fine opener for the 59th edition of Chicago’s biggest film festival. “We Grown Now” will screen at the Music Box Theatre. Most of this year’s festival screenings are scheduled for a venue new to the festival: The AMC NewCity 14, formerly the ArcLight, at 1500 N. Clybourn Ave.