A Chamber Film by Traí Byers

Resent,Ernest

What you run from is what you face.

The Story

One room. Two men. Nowhere left to hide.

Resent, Ernest is an intimate, performance-driven chamber film set mostly in one room. Two Black therapists sit for what appears to be a routine session, only to confront the deepest fears, failures, and blind spots of a man's life. One is older. One is younger. They share a profession, a past, and a truth neither is ready to face. The film explores manhood, fatherhood, faith, ambition, and the emotional cost Black men carry in silence. It's raw, spiritual, and honest.

Still. Intense. Human. A story where dialogue becomes action, and truth becomes the turning point.

Harry Lennix · Traí Byers

Resent,

Ernest

What you run from is what you face.

Directed by Alrick Brown

Directed By

Alrick Brown

Sundance Audience Award winner for Kinyarwanda (2011)

Alrick Brown is an award-winning writer, director and producer whose storytelling uncovers overlooked lives and brings their humanity into focus. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, he found his calling in film during his Peace Corps service in Côte d'Ivoire before earning his MFA in Directing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. His debut feature, Kinyarwanda, earned the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance, while his documentary Death of Two Sons received HBO's Life Through Your Lens Emerging Filmmaker Award. With work spanning independent cinema, ABC's Final Witness and ESPN's Spike Lee's Lil' Joint, Brown brings a distinctive global perspective, emotional honesty and an unwavering belief in the power of stories to reveal what connects us.

Meet The Cast

Two men. One reckoning.

Harry Lennix

Freeman

(The Blacklist, Purpose)

Gravity, spiritual depth, and emotional precision.

One of the great artists of our time, Harry Lennix is a distinguished actor, producer and director whose classical elegance and commanding presence define an enduring leading man. A Northwestern University alumnus, he has built a body of work that spans generations, from the beloved musical drama The Five Heartbeats to The Matrix films and his decade-long portrayal of Harold Cooper in The Blacklist. His performance in Purpose earned him a 2025 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. His stage work also includes August Wilson's Radio Golf on Broadway and King Hedley II, matched by the Shakespearean power of his performance in Julie Taymor's Titus. Across every medium, Lennix brings gravitas, intelligence and a deeply human complexity to the stories he tells.

Traí Byers

Ness

(Empire, The 24th)

Volatility, heart, ambition, and raw honesty.

Traí Byers is one of the most formidable leading men of our time, with extraordinary range and undeniable presence. A classically trained actor, writer and producer, he brings emotional depth and commanding intensity to his work. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where he earned his MFA, he brought intensity and complexity to Andre Lyon in Empire and portrayed civil rights leader James Forman in Ava DuVernay's Selma. As star, co-writer and producer of The 24th, he demonstrated a commitment to stories of consequence, while his Broadway debut in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson affirmed his command of the stage. Byers brings quiet magnetism, vulnerability and conviction to characters whose inner lives linger long after the final scene.

Why This Story Now

Black men today carry enormous pressure to provide, to lead, to endure, often without permission to name their pain. This film gives that silence a voice. It's not a story of pathology, it's a story of humanity, dignity, and the possibility of redemption.