Akeelah and the Bee in 35mm
Akeelah and the Bee in 35mm
Guest speaker: Introduction by producer Sid Ganis.
Keke Palmer plays Akeelah, an 11-year-old girl who reluctantly signs up to compete in the Crenshaw Schoolwide Spelling Bee and—to her own surprise—ends up winning, in this 2006 feature written and directed by Doug Atchison. Centered around the stories of Akeelah and her community in South Central Los Angeles, Akeelah and the Bee reiterates the precious value in believing in oneself and transforming it into resilience despite seemingly undefeatable challenges and disappointments of reality.
DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Doug Atchison. WITH: Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Curtis Armstrong. 2006. 112 min. USA. Color. English. Rated PG; recommended for ages 8+. 35mm. Print courtesy of the DGA Motion Picture Industry Conservation Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
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