CIVIC

_{Available worldwide except Switzerland and Belgium}

Synopsis

CIVIC is a short film that follows Booker on his first trip back home to South Central, L.A. after several years of self-imposed exile. Without any clear motive, or even a warning, Booker returns to the place that holds his origins and the people who shaped him. Framed almost exclusively inside of his car, CIVIC tracks Booker’s fleeting and fragmented encounters around his old streets. Booker spends most of his time with his childhood best friend, Tee. They ride around to liquor stores and lingering in parking lots after closing time. Closeness and distance ebbs and flows between them as they talk about their lives, old and new. The repaved ground between them allows Booker to dive deep into the past, seemingly letting go of the tension in the present. However, we soon realize Booker is avoiding his responsibility to his family members across this trip. Just as he plans his disembark from L.A., he has an unexpected encounter that helps to reframe his perspective in the world. CIVIC is an introspective film, giving life to the wordless exchanges, the mundane and the familiar shorthand of unfettered Black life.

About the directors

Dwayne LeBlanc

Dwayne LeBlanc is a Los Angeles-based, first-generation, Caribbean American filmmaker. Primarily self-taught, his practice focuses on themes of migration, visibility and dual identities.

His debut narrative short film, CIVIC, was named one of The Best Movies of 2023 by The New Yorker. It won both a Jury Prize and an Audience Award at the Indie Memphis Film Festival and a Special Jury Recognition at the New Orleans Film Festival. In 2023, CIVIC premiered internationally in Rotterdam at IFFR and France at Clermont-Ferrand. The film has continued to screen at international film festivals and art institutions worldwide, including Lincoln Center and MoMA’s New Directors/New Films, the Berkeley Academy Museum and Rencontres International Paris/Berlin. CIVIC has been acquired by the film studies department at Harvard University and is distributed on the Criterion Channel.

LeBlanc is a 2024 Dolby Institute Fellow where he is currently in post production for his sophomore short film, NOW, HEAR ME GOOD.