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Valentina @tiniv: Fuck, that was good. @DearWhitePeople #sundance2014

Jennie Hook @JennieHook: WOW! What a film! Everyone needs to see

@DearWhitePeople. Great comedy with a lot to say. #elonatsundance #Sundance

@sundancefest

Lisa Mecham @lmecham: @DearWhitePeople is one of the best films I've seen in all the

12yrs I've been coming to Sundance. Hands down.

Bob Harris @BobertHarris: @DearWhitePeople: Has the potential to be a v/ important

film. Uses humor to start a conversation that is necessary for us as a society.

Ashley B @MitigatedText : @DearWhitePeople is one of the most honest dialogues about

racism and the concept of identity that I've seen #Sundance

Kelly Kloster @KellyKloster: Someone needs to pick up @DearWhitePeople already!

#Sundance2014

Teyonah Parris @TeyonahParris: Looooong line of people wanting to see

#dearwhitepeople !! I'm so excited. #Repost from @dearwhitepeople

http://instagram.com/p/jiOC4foKCc/

Adia @Dia_Dee38 : I was finally able to see @DearWhitePeople I absolutely loved it, my

sister @niambithegreat saw it twice!!!!

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE TWITTER REVIEW & BLACK SUNDANCE UPDATE – 1-27-2014 1-27-2014 - Written By: David L. $Money Train$ Watts – Journalist/Film Reviewer

FuTurXTV & HHBMedia.com - David Velo Stewart – Editor – HHBMedia.com - $$$$$

David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • info@hhbmedia.com • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart

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If I had attended Sundance as press for FuTurXTV and HHBMedia.com, then I am

certain that one of the first films me and Dave would have saw was Dear White People

by the film’s director-writer writer-director Justin Simien. Back in the day if I missed

Sundance I could look up a few Industry reviews and say wow Dear White People is

getting great reviews on Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Indiewire, Shadow and Act, New

York Times, etc., and then conclude this indie film was hit and going to be picked up

soon. Fast forward to today and all I or any potential distributor has to do is go to Dear

White People’s Twitter page of @DEARWHITEPEOPLE and read real moviegoers at

Sundance going nuts over the film. So I have posted lots of Tweets so anyone can get

the most accurate and real sense of what many moviegoers thought after viewing Dear

White People. I have also included a very positive review of Dear White People by

Indiewire.com, but one can easily see why people nowadays will trust what folks are

passionately tweeting about than merely be influenced by just a film review they have

seen on TV or read. It is the combination of great film reviews from film critics with

positive reviews on social media that really pushes a film over the top to become a

“must-see” event at a film festival or when it is released in box offices nationwide. I am

actually surprised with all the positive hype for Dear White People that it did not already

get picked by a major studio or indie distributor like The Weinstein Co. or Lionsgate. But

I am sure it will. At least at this year’s Sundance Film Festival Dear White People’s

director-writer Justin Simien won U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award For Breakthrough

Talent. I am looking forward to seeing Dear White People when it hits the theaters later

on this year. But for now I can proudly say that the Twitter reviews give the film $$$$$.

Dear White People’s director-writer Justin Simien and Dear White People’s Sundance 2014 Cast Photo

David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • info@hhbmedia.com • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart

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Justin @JSim07: RT: @RollingStone: "#DearWhitePeople, tackling campus race relations:

http://rol.st/1jTKaQy ” (Really enjoyed doing this one!)

J. Howard Gatsby @TheBlackIcarus: Oh?? @DearWhitePeople flourished at Sundance?

Might be this year's Fruitvale.

Yessir “@sundancefest: The US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent

goes to @DearWhitePeople #Sundance http://bit.ly/SFF14AwardWins ”

Marque Richardson @MarqueRiiich: @JSim07 - YOU are the "exciting new voice in

American cinema". soak in this moment. congratulations. @DearWhitePeople

Naomi Ko @konaomie: I may be stuck in Denver, but I am overhearing fans rave about

@DearWhitePeople. THE MOVEMENT IS HERE. #yes #dearwhitepeople #sostoked

Sundance Review: Racial Satire Rarely Gets Better Than

Justin Simien's Smart, Hilarious 'Dear White People'

"Dear White People."

A bonafide satire of the Obama age, writer-director Justin Simien's persistently funny

"Dear White People" perceptively skewers virtually every facet of racial confusion in

modern American society. While black comedians like Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock have

provided searing insight into the absurdities of lingering racial tensions, Simien

consolidates much about the paradoxes explored in those acts and many others into a

wildly enjoyable and scathing farce. By exploring the heated debates between white and

black students at an upscale college, Simmien both mocks and provokes the nature of our

seemingly progressive times by illuminating misguided assumptions and fears embedded in

forward-thinking discourse. But Simien's relentless screenplay is never too self-serious or

didactic, instead pairing culturally-savvy brains with a goofy grin.

David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • info@hhbmedia.com • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart

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Set at the fictional Winchester University, "Dear White People" draws its title from the

radio show of fiery biracial student Samantha White (a ceaselessly energetic Tessa

Thompson), whose lively, comical advice ("dating a black person just to piss off your

parents is a form of racism") has made her a local celebrity. The show gains the attention

of a reality show, which enrages the envious student Coco Conners (Teyonah Paris), who

attempts to launch an unseemly black advice show of her own. Controversy over Sam's

popularity leads to a snowballing of feuds between various cliques, culminating with a

controversial black-themed party hosted by white students during which every major

character comes into play. Having established that outcome in its opening scene, the movie

flashes back to explore the interlocking social circles and various squabbles that led to that

outcome…

…It's this perspective that allows "Dear White People" to reflect on its distinctive

ingredients and carry it through the occasional uneven patches of storytelling: With its

crowd scenes of young black and white people bickering about the constructs keeping them

apart, "Dear White People" is a visual representation of society boiled down to an

ethnographic petri dish, filled with combustible ingredients that react to everything that

preceded it.

Though its premise may invite easy comparison's to Spike Lee's "School Daze," Simien's

script invokes the history of black representation onscreen from "Birth of a Nation" to

Madea. The filmmaker engages with the resonance of race in pop culture as a motivating

force that informs behavior. "You watched 'Do the Right Thing' in high school and want to

prove you're down," Sam tells Gabe in a frustrated attempt to resist his advances. Others

characterize her in similarly reductive terms. "You're like Spike Lee and Oprah had some

pissed-off baby." At one point, Sam leads a protest of Tyler Perry movies at the local movie

theater, yielding a hilarious statement about the angst surrounding mainstream depictions

of black characters that the movie addresses with its very existence.

While neither Sam or Lionel's backstories receive substantial fleshing out (passing

references to Sam's ill father fail to reach the emotional tenor they're designed to obtain),

both actors bring a legitimacy to their performances that prevents "Dear White People"

David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • info@hhbmedia.com • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart

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from going over the top. They're key to making the humor click. Assailed for a

confrontational class project titled "Rebirth of a Nation," Sam's told her flamboyant

narrative is "light on story and thematically dubious." Simien's plot, by comparison, is

exactly the opposite. Its end credits contain newspaper headlines detailing real life versions

of the blackface gathering in question at universities around the country. Even as the jokes

cut deep, "Dear White People" doesn't hesitate to get real.

Criticwire Grade: A-

HOW WILL IT PLAY? A well-made crowd-pleaser with several memorable black

characters -- and unfortunate rarity even today -- "Dear White People" is poised to

generate interest from heavy-hitting distributors and should land a strong deal with the

potential to make it a cross-over commercial hit.

READ THE WHOLE DERA WHITE PEOPLE FILM REVIEW AT:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/sundance-review-racial-satire-rarely-

gets-better-than-justin-simiens-smart-hilarious-dear-white-people

David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • info@hhbmedia.com • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart

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David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • info@hhbmedia.com • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart