ArtMattan Films will release the Black radical drama The Sleeping Negro by award-winning filmmaker Skinner Myers that had its world premiere at Slamdance 2021. The film will start its US theatrical run on Dec. 3 at Cinema Village in New York and at the Glendale in LA, before getting a digital and home-video release.

The Sleeping Negro opens with James Baldwin’s quote “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in rage almost all the time”. It tells the story of a young Black man, simply identified as “Man,” who must resolve the personal meaning of his blackness when his white boss orders him to commit fraud to benefit the corporation. Struggling with an overwhelming sense of shame for going through with the illegal demand, Man seeks consolation by discussing his unease with a black former friend and his white fiancé. This does not go well.

“Following on the footstep of the LA Rebellion filmmakers, Skinner Myers tells a very personal and intimate Black story in a radically non-traditional cinematic style as a means to express freely his feelings as a Black man in America” says Dr. Reinaldo B. Spech, Principal at ArtMattan Films.

Watch the trailer for The Sleeping Negro.

Director Skinner Myers is an award-winning filmmaker based out of Los Angeles. He has written and directed 11 films, including ‘La Tierra del Exodo’, ‘Nightmares by the Sea’, ‘Things of Beauty Burn’ and ‘Frank Embree’, which took home the Grand Jury Award at Hollyshorts. ‘The Sleeping Negro’ is his first feature film. Myers has studied at Columbia, Brooklyn College, the USC School of Cinematic Arts and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam.