Miss Juneteenth (2020)

We liked this one: a story of a former beauty queen (Fort Worth Miss Juneteenth scholarship pageant) turned single mother and waitress preparing her teenage daughter for the same prize. It is nominated for a lot of awards and has won some already. Nicole Beharie and Alexis Chikaeze do fine work as the mother named Turquoise and the daughter named Kai, as does Kendrick Sampson as Kai's father Ronnie.

Channing Godfrey Peoples grew up in Fort Worth, and she attended several Miss Juneteenth pageants there. Juneteenth, if you didn't know, is the holiday celebrating the day, June 19th, 1865, when slaves finally got word that President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation September 22, 1862. 

The music is credited to Emily Rice but I can't find any online. There are several playlists available, on Apple Music and SoundtrackMania, among others, but I haven't listened to them because I can't write while listening to lyrics.

Beharie was last blogged for 42 and Chikaeze makes her acting debut. I knew Sampson looked familiar with his handsome face and blue eyes. He played Nathan in Insecure and was in four episodes of White Famous, among a number of credits. Peoples makes her feature directing and writing debuts.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics have crowned the winner with an average of 99%, while its audiences do not make the finals at 58.

We watched this on April 2, and you can, too, by renting it on iTunes or Prime.