A Thousand and One

Dir. A.V. Rockwell. 2023, 116 mins. With Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross, Aven Courtney, Aaron Kingsley Adetola. The Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival is a work of emotional complexity and finely tuned historical detail from one of the most exciting new American filmmakers in years: the Queens-born-and-raised A.V. Rockwell. In a titanic performance of revelatory sensitivity and force, Teyana Taylor plays Inez, a hairdresser recently released from Rikers Island prison on charges of theft; upon reconnecting with her six-year-old son Terry, who’s been in and out of foster care, she makes the impulsive decision to reclaim him and take his future into her own hands. Spanning the early 1990s to post-9/11 New York, A Thousand and One is at once a depiction of a mother’s interior landscape, a snapshot of a city going through incremental yet dramatic change, and a lacerating indictment of a bureaucratic social system that leaves many a child behind—all building to an overwhelming conclusion.

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.