Skip to main content
The Piano Lesson film image; two people feeling a wooden carving on the wall

The Piano Lesson

Special Presentations

This event has passed

The third film in Denzel Washington’s long-term project to bring the plays of August Wilson to the screen (after Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), The Piano Lesson is directed by Denzel’s son Malcolm, and features a stellar turn by Malcolm’s older brother, John David Washington. We are in Pittsburgh, 1936. Boy Willie (John David Washington) shows up unannounced at the home of his widowed sister, Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler). He brings with him a friend — Lymon (Ray Fisher) — a truckload of watermelons, and a plan to capitalize on the ornately carved piano that sits, neglected, in the living room. Berniece, however, is having none of it.

Aside from a prologue set in 1911 and a handful of brief flashbacks to slavery times, the action is predominantly restricted to the family parlour; the stage origins are obvious. But that’s no drawback when the dialogue is so richly marbled with resonant ideas, flavourful character, and emotional conflict. Wilson is grappling with the legacy of trauma, here, with different ways of coping with grief and exorcizing the past. It’s a riveting piece, superbly performed.

Director
Cast

Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Skylar Aleece Smith

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2024

Language

English

Film Contact
18+
125 min
Black Cinema Drama Family Relations
Netflix, Mundy Lane Entertainment, Escape Artists

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Jennifer Roth, Constanza Romero Wilson, Katia Washington

Producer

Denzel Washington, Todd Black

Screenwriter

Virgil Williams, Malcolm Washington

Cinematography

Michael Gioulakis

Editor

Leslie Jones

Production Design

David J. Bomba

Original Music

Alexandre Desplat

Malcolm Washington headshot; The Piano Lesson director

Malcolm Washington

Malcolm Washington is a Los Angeles-born filmmaker known for his award-winning short Benny Got Shot (2016). After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the American Film Institute, he has produced the short films Summer of ’17 (2017) and The Dispute (2019), and the feature North Hollywood (2021). The Piano Lesson is his feature film directorial debut.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Every Little Thing

Dir. Sally Aitken
93 min

If you thought Flow was an emotional rollercoaster, wait til you meet Cactus and Wasabi, baby hummingbirds fighting for their lives under the loving care of hummingbird-whisperer Terry Masear, an Angelino who makes it her mission to nurse injured birds.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Apprentice

Dir. Ali Abbasi
122 min

Trump: the Origin Story. It is 1973. Flashy young real estate tycoon and man about town, Donald (Sebastian Stam) meets Machiavellian mob lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). It is love at first sight.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Dir. Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham
79 min

Aardman Animation's handcrafted mix of dad jokes, slapstick, mock dramatics and understated emotion makes this return for the claymation odd couple a constant delight. The villainous Feathers McGraw is back to no good, commandeering Norbot the robot. Rated: G

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Memories of Murder

Dir. Bong Joon-ho
132 min

Parasite director Bong Joon-ho's police procedural is the centrepiece of our retrospective and arguably his masterpiece. Certainly, among serial killer movies this one is on a par with Zodiac and The Silence of the Lambs, but more politically astute.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Tokyo!

Dir. Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax & Michel Gondry
112 min

As a bonus to our Bong Joon-ho series, a side trip to Tokyo! This 2008 anthology film features three mid-length films by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and (the best of the bunch) Bong.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Okja

Dir. Bong Joon-ho
121 min

Bong #6: his wackiest movie, centered on a genetically modified super pig the size of a hippo. Raised by a Korean peasant farmer, prize specimen Okja is called to New York to launch its new food product. But animal liberationists mean to disrupt the show.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema