Skip to main content
Unlikely Allies film image; three men stand in front of step and repeat to have their photo taken

Unlikely Allies

Insights

This event has passed

International Premiere

Anthony Pedone’s film documents an extraordinary response to an appalling American injustice. In 2004, up-and-coming music entrepreneur Weldon Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in federal prison. His crime? Three marijuana sales, totalling $350, to an informer. Angelos’s case became a cause célèbre, attracting rare cross-partisan support: not only did the judge and prosecutor call for his release, but so did powerful conservatives such as Charles Koch. With help from his music industry associates, including Snoop Dogg, Angelos fought long and hard for his freedom, which was only granted after more than a decade.

Taking us from Angelos’s hardscrabble youth in Utah to his music career in California, Pedone creates a touching personal portrait that complements the political message and infuses it with urgency. It’s not every day that hardcore American conservatives join forces with hip-hoppers, and part of the satisfaction of the film is in seeing people reach across a huge political divide. Passionate, uplifting, and incisive, Unlikely Allies is that rarest of things: a good-news story about contemporary America.

 

Media Partner

Community Partner

Director
Featuring

Weldon Angelos, Hollis, Nepolea, Lisa Angelos, Snoop Dogg, Charels Koch

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2023

Language

English

Film Contact
18+
95 min
Black Cinema Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice
Content Cartel, Film Exchange

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Bo Bennett, Marc Levin, Kevin Garnett, Michael Hollis Goldstein, Weldon Angelos

Producer

Mike Marangu, Hollis Goldstein, Anthony Pedone, Patrick McManamee

Screenwriter

Anthony Pedone, Max Blecker

Cinematography

Jake Bayless, Ellington Tynes

Editor

Hee-Jae Park, Anthony Pedone, Max Blecker

Original Music

Michael Hollis Goldstein

Anthony Pedone headshot; Unlikely Allies director

Anthony Pedone

Anthony Pedone is an independent filmmaker who dedicates his time to creating content that cultivates inclusion, community building, and collaboration. His work has premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, Slamdance, and Locarno, and can be streamed on Max, Amazon, Hulu, and Peacock.

Filmography: The Why (2009); Camp Casserole (2011); An American in Texas (2017)

Photo by Daniel B. Levin

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

The Life of Chuck

Dir. Mike Flanagan
111 min

The winner of the coveted Audience Award at TIFF last year, The Life of Chuck keeps us guessing about what it's up to and where it's going... Trust us, it's a keeper.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Graduate

Dir. Mike Nichols
106 min

In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

blur: To the End

Dir. Toby L.
108 min

Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Midnight Cowboy

Dir. John Schlesinger
113 min

Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Sinners

Dir. Ryan Coogler
137 min

This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Headless Woman

Dir. Lucrecia Martel
87 min

The pictures tell the story -- and you better not blink -- when Veronica (the superb Maria Onetto) hits something on the road home. But what? She is too traumatized, or panic-stricken, to go back and look, and her fears are too terrible to acknowledge.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre