SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Current
By Steven G. Kellman
Published: August 1, 2012
The drama of a dutiful boy abused in church, Wolf was written and directed by a local kid who made good. A graduate of San Antonio’s Sam Houston High School who now teaches at UT Arlington, Ya’Ke Smith has earned a string of prizes for his short films (his acclaimed Katrina’s Son was shown at Cannes). Wolf, his debut feature, was shot entirely in this city, though, except for an occasional glimpse of the Tower of the Americas, the setting could be anywhere. The main characters are middle-class African Americans, though there is nothing racially specific to their story. As the scandals within Penn State University and the Roman Catholic Church make clear, sexual abuse of boys is a national epidemic. Yet, we seldom see the problem being addressed from an African-American perspective.
In the absence of his father Jaymund (Shelton Jolivette), a long-haul truck driver who is often away from home, Carl Stevens (Jordan Cooper) has developed an intimate relationship with Bishop Anderson (Eugene Lee), the charismatic minister of the church where the family worships. Nona (Mikala Gibson) is a loving mother to Carl, an outstanding student at the church school, but, preparing for a career in psychiatry, she is distracted by her own studies. After a disturbing event takes place, his parents are shocked to discover that for several years their pastor has been molesting their son.
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