[Trailer] Powerful Romance Drama “The Photograph” Stars Issa Rae, LaKeith Stanfield

On Valentine’s Day, Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield connect in a romance where a woman must learn from the secrets in her mother’s past if she is to move forward and allow herself to love and be loved.

From Will Packer, blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and ten movies that have opened No. 1 at the U.S. box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, comes a sweeping love story about forgiveness, and about finding the courage to seek the truth, no matter where it may lead you.

The first trailer for The Photograph immediately sets the scene: Rae plays Mae Morton, whose mother, famous photographer Christina Eames, has died suddenly, leaving her without any sense of closure. Theirs was a fraught relationship, and Mae finds herself angry and hurt — until she finds an old black and white photograph hidden in a safety deposit box that may hold the key to her mother’s life story. Around the same time, Mae meets Michael Block (Stanfield), an up-and-coming journalist writing a story about her mother’s career. Together, they strive to solve the mystery of Christina’s past — and fall in love in the process.

The trailer, set to H.E.R.’s “Hard Place,” is moody, full of warm lighting, saturated colors, and palpable sexual tension. Roxanne Roxanne breakout star Chanté Adams also stars as young Christina, along with Insecure‘s Y’lan Noel as her secret lover. Finally, Rob Morgan will play Isaac Jefferson, a New Orleans fisherman whose connection to Christina is all part of the mystery that needs to be solved. 

The Photograph was written and directed by Stellie Meghie, one of the few Black women working on a studio-level today. In 2017 Meghie’s Everything Everything was the only studio movie directed by a Black woman. “I don’t think anybody knows who I am, but I like to stay under the radar, so that’s kind of OK with me,” Meghie told Indiewire in January.

Get ready to swoon over The Photograph when the film hits theaters Friday, February 14, 2020.