Alma's Rainbow - 30th Anniversary 4K Restoration (15)

★★★✭ A delightful portrait of intergenerational Black womanhood, 30 years since its initial release, Ayoka Chenzira’s underseen debut stylish gem receives a gorgeous 4K restoration. ~ Little White Lies.

---

A 30th anniversary 4K restoration of the 1993 coming-of-age comedy-drama about three Black women living in Brooklyn.

Ayoka Chenzira’s debut feature film explores the life of teenager Rainbow Gold (Victoria Gabrielle Platt) who is entering womanhood and navigating conversations and experiences around standards of beauty, self-image, and the rights Black women have over their bodies.

Rainbow attends a strict parochial school, studies dance, and is just becoming aware of boys. She lives with her strait-laced mother Alma Gold (Kim Weston-Moran), who runs a hair salon in the parlor of their home.

When Alma’s free-spirited sister Ruby (Mizan Kirby) arrives from Paris after a 10-year absence, the sisters clash over what constitutes the “proper” direction Rainbow’s life should take.

Alma has fooled herself into believing she has no need of male companionship and advises her daughter to follow her example.

Ruby encourages both her niece and her sister to embrace life – and love – fully and joyfully. 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.

---

★★★★ A teenager rebels against her mother’s respectable values in this 4K restoration of Ayoka Chenzira’s feature debut from 1994. A 90s New York tale of Black womanhood and sexuality which is worth the wait. ~ The Observer.