The DuVernay Agency

In 1989, a collective of young hip hop artists gathered at a health food café in South Central Los Angeles. Their mandate? To reject gang culture and expand the musical boundaries of hip hop. DuVernay's documentary chronicles the historic legacy of the Good Life Cafe — the open mic nights that became an L.A. institution, the eclectic array of talented young MCs that emerged there, the alternative hip hop movement they developed, and their worldwide influence on the artform.

Writer-director Ava DuVernay's short drama concerns a poor, struggling single mother whose trip with her three children to a 99-cent store in Los Angeles becomes an unexpectedly uplifting family experience. Melissa DeSousa ("The Best Man") stars.