By Jared D. Childress | OBSERVER Staff Writer
“The Threesome,” was hands-down the most polarizing film shown at the inaugural Oak Park Black Film Festival held Sept. 7-11 at the Guild Theater.
The sex comedy tells the story of two Black women and one Black man on the night of a threesome. Loaded with internal dialogue revealing deflected insecurities, the film climaxes with a slapstick sex scene that had the audience both blushing and laughing uncontrollably.
“We really wanted to explore Black sexuality,” said writer and director Jamal Dedeaux, who was raised in church. “We’re conservative people, but at the same time, we’re this too. We’ve had threesomes.”
While 81% of Americans have never had a threesome according to a recent study, African Americans were more likely to have engaged in threesomes when compared to their White, Latino, and Asian counterparts. The study also found that adults 65 and older had lower rates of threesomes.
Attendees Kirsten Johnson and Malkah Eminah met at the festival and had differing opinions on the film.
While Eminah appreciated the production quality, she said the content wasn’t for her.
“I didn’t see it as a cultural thing, it’s just something that adults may do,” Eminah, 63, said. “Overall, I’m looking at our presentation of who we are as a people so that we are treated with respect.”
Kirsten Johnson instead found “The Threesome” empowering.
“I like women who take charge of their sexuality,” said the 56-year-old. “There needs to be more conversations around this to make it less weird and more open.”
While “The Threesome” received mixed reviews from an audience consisting largely of baby boomers, it was the film that set the festival in motion. Dedeaux was the first to commit to showing his film in Sacramento.
During the onstage post-film discussion, former Sacramento Mayor and St. Hope founder Kevin Johnson detailed the chance encounter at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival in August. As Johnson was about to leave, Dedeaux told the former NBA All-Star he was a “big fan” and asked him to watch his film.
“I was trying not to see this movie,” Johnson confessed to the crowd. “But I had already said ‘yes,’ so I didn’t feel like I could get out of it … but when I watched it, I was laughing most of the time.”
Lead actor Jerrel O’Neal said his first impression was that the script was “wild as hell. I thought [the director] was really stretching limits.”
Johnson followed that statement by asking O’Neal what part of the role most concerned him. “The biggest thing for me was making sure the women felt respected throughout the process,” O’Neal said. “Every time we did a scene [I checked in with them.]”
Film producer Jaleel Ghafur added that they hired an intimacy coordinator.
The movie was filmed at Dedeaux’s mom’s house over 14 days. It was financed through independent sources, which allowed the project to maintain artistic freedom.
“We got a little from a lot of people, as opposed to one person giving us a lot and then telling us what to do with the film,” Dedeaux said to The OBSERVER. “So the script didn’t change.”
The film currently is being screened only at festivals, but Dedeaux is in talks for a distribution deal that he hopes closes in the next few weeks.
“My hope is that the film will come out sometime between Valentine’s Day and April of next year,” Dedeaux said. “On a major platform, so people will be able to see it all around the world.”
While it’s easy to get hung up on sex, Dedeaux said the film is about sharing the raw and honest story of three complex people trying to achieve a goal.
“It feels like Black sex is either taboo or hypersexualized,” Dedeaux said. “We never see the insecurities within us, but we get to know these characters first. The sex came last.”