Channing Godfrey Peoples' debut feature film, "Miss Juneteenth," is a sharp and nuanced depiction of Black womanhood, unpacking the sacrifices and aspirations of women from generations long past and connecting them to the Black women of today. Set in Fort Worth, Texas, Peoples turns her lens on Turquoise Jones (an exquisite Nicole Beharie), a former beauty queen turned single mom who is determined to provide her 15-year-old daughter, Kai (Alexis Chikaeze), with the opportunities that once slipped through her grasp — via the annual Miss Juneteenth pageant she herself once won and which she believes represents Kai's ticket to a more comfortable life.
Juneteenth — "Freedom Day" as it's also called — commemorates the anniversary of the Union Army's arrival in Galveston, Texas, in 1865, letting the enslaved people know that they were free and that the Civil War had been officially over since April. As celebratory as the day was, and still is, for many Black Americans, it was also bittersweet: Slavery had formally ended in the United States two and a half years prior, when President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation became official on Jan. 1, 1863.
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