Rivers Wash Over Me


Rivers Wash Over Me is a 2009 drama film directed by John G. Young. Young shares the screenplay with Darien Sills-Evans. The film was produced by Sills-Evans, with Dexter Davis as executive producer.

Plot

The film touches on race relations, incest, drugs, and growing up gay in the American South. A recent New York City transplant, Sequan Greene has been sent to live in Alabama after the recent death of his mother. He is brutally raped by his cousin Michael Wilis. It becomes clear that Michael also is gay - a victim as well as a victimizer. He says, "I can’t be a faggot...You’re the faggot. You’re my faggot." Sequan is also bullied and beaten up at school.
Sequan soon finds a friend in Lori Anderson, the girlfriend of drug dealer/basketball player Ahmed Robins. Lori is the town's "bad girl" who has a heart of gold. Although she freebases, snorts coke throughout the school day, steals guns and sleeps with the town basketball star, she is immediately taken by admiration of Sequan and his brazen nonconformity. Despite Sequan's unwillingness, Lori manages to befriend him, bringing him out of his shell and eventually introducing him to both moonshine and her gay brother, Jake.

Cast