New York City, 1981.  A young Barack Obama tries to find his way as a college student in a new city as he is faced with questions about race, culture, and identity during a crucial year in the future President’s life.

It’s the Fall of 1981 and a young Barack Obama (Devon Terrell)—known to his friends as “Barry”— arrives as a transfer student at Columbia University.  Thrust into Mayor Koch’s racially fraught and crime-ridden New York City, Barry finds himself pulled between various social stratospheres.  As he struggles to maintain a series of increasingly strained relationships—with his Kansas-born mother (Ashley Judd), his estranged Kenyan father, and his classmates (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch, Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood, Jason Mitchell – Straight Outta Compton,)—glaring issues of inequality force him to confront questions surrounding his own identity.  His experiences over that pivotal school year begin to shape his views on race, government, and what it means to be an American.  Helmed by director Vikram Gandhi (Kumaré, HBO’s “VICE”), Barry unfolds into a powerful exploration of a consciousness rising.

104 minutes

Teddy Schwarzman, Ben Stillman, Dana O’Keefe, Vikram Gandhi