‘Mickey Hardaway’: Feature About Black Male Trauma Heads To The Criterion Channel
One man tries to get a hold of his personal traumas as he embarks on his dream career in Marcellus Cox’s feature Mickey Hardaway. The film will debut on The Criterion Channel in 2024.
The film stars Rashad Hunter as the titular character, a talented cartoonist and sketch artist who wants to go into the arts, but must figure out how to come to terms with the trauma from his childhood inflicted by his father Randall (David Chattam). His therapist Dr. Cameron Harden (Stephen Cofield Jr.) does his best to get to the root of Mickey’s mental blocks so he can live his best life.
Cox said in a statement that Mickey Hardaway is a “very personal” story to him, “showing how most of the time society is its own worst enemy and the main cause of so many downfalls just because you dare to dream and envision yourself as something more than the world wishes to see you as.”
“I wanted to showcase this and the effects that it has on people, the generational trauma and mental exhaustion that people, in particular black men, have to endure and how we’re taught to keep moving on with life without discussing are emotions and seeking help until it’s too late and even then sometimes it’s not enough once you find it,” he said. “Mickey Hardaway is not just another typical movie, it’s a conversational character study that doesn’t seek to give you answers but more to show how folks, in a time more than ever with depression being a mainstay, reach their breaking points and fall to their demise. And with mental health being at an all-time high in the Black community, I really wanted to bring this subject to a much needed forefront.”
Watch the trailer for the film below.
