{ "id": "epj26e1pfe", "slug": "straight-out-of-brooklyn", "title": "Straight Out of Brooklyn", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films", "label": "1990s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films.crime-dramas-and-gangster-films", "label": "Crime dramas and gangster films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films.crime-dramas-and-gangster-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films.crime-dramas-and-gangster-films", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Crime dramas and gangster films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films.crime-dramas-and-gangster-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films", "label": "1990s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films.crime-dramas-and-gangster-films", "label": "Crime dramas and gangster films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films.crime-dramas-and-gangster-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Straight Out of Brooklyn is a 1991 American drama, the debut feature of 19-year-old Matty Rich, about a Red Hook teenager robbing a drug dealer to escape poverty; it won a 1991 Sundance Special Jury Prize and the 1992 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.", "snippet": "Straight Out of Brooklyn is a 1991 American drama, the debut feature of 19-year-old Matty Rich, about a Red Hook teenager robbing a drug dealer to escape poverty; it won a 1991 Sundance Special Jury Prize and the 1992 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1990s-films.crime-dramas-and-gangster-films", "markdown": "# Straight Out of Brooklyn\n\n*Straight Out of Brooklyn* is a 1991 American drama film written, directed, produced by, and co-starring Matty Rich, who was 19 years old when it premiered. Set in the Red Hook housing projects of Brooklyn, New York, it follows a teenager who plots to rob a neighborhood drug dealer to pay his family's way out of poverty. At the 1991 [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival) the movie received a Special Jury Prize, and the 1992 [Independent Spirit Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/independent-spirit-awards) honored it as Best First Feature.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | New York opening 22 May 1991; Los Angeles opening 30 May 1991; distributed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) • [2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0102989/) |\n| Director/writer/producer | Matty Rich, 19 at the Sundance premiere; he began the project at 17 as a high school student in Red Hook[3](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/festival-rewind-revisiting-sundance-91-the-year-of-slacker-trust-and-daughters-of-the-dust-3/) |\n| Principal cast | George T. Odom (Ray Brown), Ann D. Sanders (Frankie Brown), Lawrence Gilliard Jr. (Dennis Brown), Barbara Sanon (Carolyn Brown), Reana E. Drummond (Shirley), Matty Rich (Larry)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) |\n| Budget and gross | Production budget $450,000; domestic gross $2,712,293 on a $58,918 opening[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Straight-out-of-Brooklyn) • [2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0102989/) |\n| Awards | Special Jury Prize, 1991 Sundance; Best First Feature, 1992 Independent Spirit Awards; Jury Special Prize at Torino 1991[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102989/awards/) |\n| Reception | 80% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 10 reviews; critics praised its insider view while noting the rawness of the low-budget production[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_out_of_brooklyn) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) |\n| Rating and length | MPAA R; AFI lists 83 minutes, while Box Office Mojo and TV Guide list 1 hour 31 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) • [2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0102989/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe story centers on the Brown family in a Brooklyn housing project. Ray Brown, an alcoholic gas station attendant, abuses his wife Frankie and rages against \"the white man,\" whom he blames for his poverty. Their teenaged children, Dennis and Carolyn, wake to the aftermath of his rampages. Frankie finds work cleaning houses through the New York City Department of Labor to supplement her husband's meager wages, and Carolyn questions her mother's tolerance of the abuse.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n\nDennis, exasperated by his father's weekly violence, decides the family's situation must change. With his friends Larry (played by Rich) and Kevin, he plots to rob Saladene, the neighborhood drug dealer, rather than take the gas station job Larry offers. He tells his girlfriend Shirley about his dream of a new life on Manhattan Island and dismisses her advice to attend college, saying he needs a more immediate solution. Kevin persuades his Uncle Scotty to lend the three his car, ostensibly for a trip to [Coney Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/coney-island).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n\nThe robbery yields a briefcase filled with thousands of dollars, but the dealer and his henchmen track Dennis down, and the neighborhood he wants to escape closes in on him.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_out_of_brooklyn) The film ends with a written statement: \"First things learned are the hardest to forget. Traditions pass from one generation to the next. We need to change.\"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n\n## Production and financing\n\n**A teenage production.** Rich began the film as a 17-year-old high school student in Red Hook and based it on experiences he had lived and observed there.[3](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/festival-rewind-revisiting-sundance-91-the-year-of-slacker-trust-and-daughters-of-the-dust-3/) • [7](https://www.deseret.com/1991/7/9/20088717/film-review-straight-out-of-brooklyn/) He financed the independent film himself, \"in bits and pieces,\" according to a July 1991 *Box Office* account cited by the AFI Catalog.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) After maxing out credit cards to shoot the opening scene, he put out a direct fundraising appeal over local radio station airwaves, an early form of what would now be called crowdsourcing.[3](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/festival-rewind-revisiting-sundance-91-the-year-of-slacker-trust-and-daughters-of-the-dust-3/) The production company was Blacks 'n Progress, and the film was produced in association with American Playhouse Theatrical Films.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n\nDirector [Jonathan Demme](https://www.edgepedia.org/jonathan-demme), who was doing post-production on *The Silence of the Lambs*, saw the finished film and was impressed; he had earlier noticed the sign on Rich's door reading \"Straight Out of Brooklyn: What you don't want to hear\" and brought the project to Ira Deutchman's independent production company. Demme is thanked in the end credits.[8](https://www.blackfilm.com/read/straight-out-of-brooklyn-20th-anniversary/) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-26-ca-771-story.html) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) The reported production budget was $450,000.[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Straight-out-of-Brooklyn)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe film premiered at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival, where Rich was one of the youngest directors ever to screen a feature, and won a Special Jury Prize.[3](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/festival-rewind-revisiting-sundance-91-the-year-of-slacker-trust-and-daughters-of-the-dust-3/) It opened in New York on 22 May 1991 and in Los Angeles on 30 May 1991, distributed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) A benefit screening at the Baldwin Hills Theater in Los Angeles, reportedly the only African-American owned and operated first-run movie theater in the United States, raised money for the Challengers Boys and Girls Club in South Central Los Angeles.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n\nReviews were generally positive, although numerous critics highlighted the deficiencies of the low-budget production.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN) *Los Angeles Times* critic Peter Rainer deemed it a hopeful debut, noting that despite the movie's ragged, amateurish quality, it aspired to something weighty: an honestly rendered, from-within portrait of a black family living in a crime-plagued housing project.[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-31-ca-2580-story.html) Roger Ebert gave it 3 of 4 stars, writing that \"the edges are rough and the ending is simply a slogan printed on the screen. But the truth is there, and echoes after the film is over.\"[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_out_of_brooklyn) Emanuel Levy described it as amateurish and technically raw but offering a fresh insider's view of the disintegration of one black family as a microcosm of the inner-city black community.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_out_of_brooklyn)\n\nAt the 1992 Independent Spirit Awards the film won Best First Feature for Rich as director and producer; it was also nominated for Best Supporting Male (George T. Odom) and Best Film Music (Harold Wheeler). Rich won the Producers Guild's Nova Award for Most Promising Producer in Theatrical Motion Pictures, and the film took the Jury Special Prize for Feature Film at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102989/awards/)\n\n## Box office\n\nThe film grossed $58,918 on its domestic opening and $2,712,293 in total, all of it domestic, roughly six times its $450,000 production budget.[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0102989/) • [4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Straight-out-of-Brooklyn)\n\n## Place in black independent cinema\n\nScholarship on the 'hood film, the cycle of films depicting inner-city Black life that followed the [Blaxploitation](https://www.edgepedia.org/blaxploitation) era, commonly begins with Rich's film alongside [Mario Van Peebles](https://www.edgepedia.org/mario-van-peebles)'s *[New Jack City](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-jack-city)* (1991), Ernest Dickerson's *Juice* (1992), and Leon Ichaso's *Sugar Hill* (1994).[11](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu//bitstreams/eab75795-02ef-4b25-b402-737999400c10/download) The film's setting was itself part of its subject: at the time it was made, the majority of Red Hook residents had incomes below the poverty line, with high unemployment competing with high crime rates.[12](https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/13405/1/31.pdf) Rich was hailed at the time as a new face of black cinema, though he directed only one more theatrical feature, *The Inkwell* (1994), before stepping away from filmmaking.[8](https://www.blackfilm.com/read/straight-out-of-brooklyn-20th-anniversary/) • [3](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/festival-rewind-revisiting-sundance-91-the-year-of-slacker-trust-and-daughters-of-the-dust-3/)\n\n## Music\n\nHarold Wheeler composed the score, and the soundtrack features hip-hop and R&B performers including [Queen Latifah](https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-latifah), Daddy-O, Force M.D.'s, J. C. Lodge, and The East New York Connection; the title track \"Straight Out Of Brooklyn (Hip-Hop)\" was produced, written, arranged, and composed by Daddy-O.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59054-STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-BROOKLYN)\n2. [Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0102989/)\n3. [Festival Rewind: Revisiting Sundance '91, Sundance Institute](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/festival-rewind-revisiting-sundance-91-the-year-of-slacker-trust-and-daughters-of-the-dust-3/)\n4. [Straight out of Brooklyn (1991), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Straight-out-of-Brooklyn)\n5. [Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102989/awards/)\n6. [Straight Out of Brooklyn, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_out_of_brooklyn)\n7. [Film review: Straight Out of Brooklyn, Deseret News (July 9, 1991)](https://www.deseret.com/1991/7/9/20088717/film-review-straight-out-of-brooklyn/)\n8. [Straight Out Of Brooklyn's 20th Anniversary, blackfilm.com](https://www.blackfilm.com/read/straight-out-of-brooklyn-20th-anniversary/)\n9. [PARK CITY REPORT: Right in the Spotlight, Los Angeles Times (January 26, 1991)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-26-ca-771-story.html)\n10. [MOVIE REVIEW: 'Straight Out of Brooklyn' a Promising First Effort, Los Angeles Times (May 31, 1991)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-31-ca-2580-story.html)\n11. [Dissertation on the 'hood film, University of Oregon Scholars' Bank](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu//bitstreams/eab75795-02ef-4b25-b402-737999400c10/download)\n12. [Complicating Race (scholarly chapter on the film's setting)](https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/13405/1/31.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1990s films › Crime dramas and gangster films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-out-of-brooklyn", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-out-of-brooklyn.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Straight Out of Brooklyn\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-out-of-brooklyn. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Straight Out of Brooklyn](https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-out-of-brooklyn)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-out-of-brooklyn](https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-out-of-brooklyn). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Straight Out of Brooklyn\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/straight-out-of-brooklyn. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Straight Out of Brooklyn is a 1991 American drama, the debut feature of 19-year-old Matty Rich, about a Red Hook teenager robbing a drug dealer to escape poverty; it won a 1991 Sundance Special Jury Prize and the 1992 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature." }