The Story

This gritty feature starring Wood Harris (the Wire, Remember The Titans), as Tony Smalls, a lawyer who is happily part of the new urban middle class in Detroit. While his sister Nia (NBushe Wright, Blade), a high school graduate, is not.

But when Nia's boyfriend, Big Boy (Christian "Trick Trick" Mathis) is arrested for murder, Tony is pulled back into the neighborhood he worked so hard to escape. Believing in the system and its minions would only work against Tony as he faces off against an old neighborhood nemesis, Flip (Jamie Hector, The Wire), who is all too clear about who he is and what he stands for. But who really controls the Criminal Justice System in Detroit? Are the gods Tony prays to who he thinks they are? And who really runs the streets?

Tony must find answers to these questions as he navigates a spellbinding and emotionally charged journey back to his old neighborhood, Joy Road.

SUBPLOTS:

• Joy Road opens our eyes to todays private prison structure, where global corporations operate prisons for profit. How far might they go to make their prison business a success? Joy Road explores this question and offers a plausible but unsettling scenario. Today, with Blacks making up a disproportionate share of the prison population, Joy Road is indeed food for thought.

• For decades Black people have had white people to blame for their problems but Joy Road takes us into the world of Detroit, a city where the wealthy are black, the upper middle class are black, the working class are black and the street thugs are black. Joy Road begs the question, what happens when there's nobody else to blame but us?

• It was said in Joy Road that our leaders used to come from school, now its the streets - that's because those who went to school never came back. Well Tony Smalls achieved just such professional status. Joy Road explores what happened when Tony had to go back to the streets where he was raised - to learn to become his own man.

Detroit
AMC Star Southfield 20
25333 West 12 Mile Rd.
Southfield, MI 48034

Detroit
AMC Star Fairlane
1800 Michigan Ave.
Dearborn. MI 48126

Atlanta
HOLLYWOOD STADIUM 24 @ NORTH I-85
3265 N.E. Expressway Access
Chamblee GA 30341

Washington DC
MAJESTIC STADIUM 20 & IMAX
900 Ellsworth Drive
Silver Spring MD 20910

Cleveland
RICHMOND TOWN SQUARE STADIUM 20
631 Richmond Road
Richmond Heights OH
44143

Philadelphia
RIVERVIEW PLAZA STADIUM 17
1400 South Columbus Blvd.
Philadelphia PA 19147

St. Louis
ST. LOUIS MILLS STADIUM 18 & IMAX
5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd.
Hazelwood MO 63042

Chicago
AMC Country Club 16
4201 167th St
Country Club Hills, IL 60478