Pariah

Pariah is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by Dee Rees. It tells the story of Alike (Adepero Oduye), a 17-year-old Black teenager embracing her identity as a lesbian. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Excellence in Cinematography Award. It has since been considered to be one of the best films of the 2010s and of the 21st century. In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", making it the first narrative feature from the 2010s and currently the most recent film chosen to be in the registry. Plot Alike ("Lee") is a 17-year-old Black girl who hangs out at clubs with her openly lesbian friend Laura. Alike slowly and firmly comes to terms with her own identity as a butch lesbian, comfortable in baggy clothes and male underwear. Her mother Audrey approves of neither her clothes nor her friendship with Laura. Harboring growing suspicions about Alike's sexuality, Audrey forces her to wear feminine clothing and tries to stem any influence from Laura by pushing Alike to instead make friends with Bina, a girl from her church. Alike has a better relationship with her father Arthur, who is a police detective.