I watched “The Hate You Give,” and it changed me.
Bright lights flicker and fade to grey and then darkness.
I scooch back into my snuggly, red plush seat, and the projector reveals a figure on the screen. I look right, barely able to make out the face of my girlfriend sitting only inches away. The pitch black of the theater invites me to focus on one image — the man about to speak to me, large and looming, straight ahead. I feel a connection with the man on the screen because his face is the only face that is illuminated. The darkness of the theater has a special kind of superpower. It creates an intimacy between myself and the man who has just introduced himself as George Tillman, Jr — the incredibly gifted and bold director of The Hate U Give.