Aleshea Harris Releases 'Is God Is' in US Cinemas, Making Feature Directorial Debut
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 15
Aleshea Harris Releases 'Is God Is' in US Cinemas, Making Feature Directorial Debut
8 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 15
US cinemas are now showing Is God Is, Aleshea Harris’s first feature as director after she adapted her 2018 Obie-winning off-Broadway revenge play for the screen.
2018’s stage hit follows scarred twin sisters Racine and Anaia, who are ordered by their dying mother to kill the father who burned her and disfigured them as children.
Kara Young and Mallori Johnson lead the film as the twins, grounding its road-trip revenge plot in a co-dependent sister bond shaped by foster care, trauma and diverging views on vengeance.
Vivica A. Fox plays the mother after a four-hour prosthetics process, while Sterling K. Brown takes a sharply subversive turn as the charming but abusive father Harris recast from the play.
The release extends a work that drew intense theater buzz in 2018 and transferred to London in 2021, with UK and Australia dates still to be announced.
How does 'Is God Is' challenge traditional revenge narratives and what impact could this have on Black women's representation in film?
In adapting her play for the screen, what risks did Aleshea Harris take, and how might these choices influence future genre films?