Kali's Vibe

Director: Shari Carpenter

Cast: Lizzy Davis, Charles Malik Whitfield, Phalana Tiller, Akanke McLean-Nur, Yvette Brooks, Monet Dunham

Country: U.S.
Year: 2001
Running Time: 92 min
Format: video

Kali is a social worker who has an easier time solving the problems of other people than she does of facing her own. When she finally gets sick of her performance artist live-in girlfriend's infidelity, she kicks her out. Alone, and a wreck, she takes a hesitant stab at jumping into the dating pool.

Then she meets Reese, a good-looking, charismatic single father who does temp work at her office. Reese is smitten with Kali, but when he finds out that she is gay, the relationship turns into a friendship as he comforts her as she tries to get over her ex. As Kali's feelings for Reese deepen into something more than friendship, she must question what she always believed to be true.

Featuring stellar performances from a captivating cast, Kali's Vibe challenges the notion of labels when it comes to sexuality, relationships, and love. Kali's questioning of her own feelings and desires expresses how labels, even the ones we attach to ourselves, can be constricting and arbitrary. When it comes to matters of the heart, there are no boundaries.

--Dan Krovich

Presented By: Shari Carpenter

Shari Carpenter graduated from NYU with at degree in drama and dramatic writing and began her film career as an intern on Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. She worked her way up to script supervisor on such films as Malcolm X, Waiting to Exhale, and The First Wives Club. Along the way, she took production classes and made short films including the award-winning Since Lisa. The screenplay for Kali's Vibe was selected to open the Fifth Night Screenplay Reading Series and won the Martha's Flavor screenplay competition in Martha's Vineyard in 1998.