“Sylvie’s Love”, set to be released on Christmas to be streamed on Amazon Prime Video, seems like a beautiful early 1950s piece filled with love, jazz and a lot of staring into the eyes of a loved one. But it is not as simple as that, the movie speaks in length about gaining opportunities and chasing your dream, even when the world is against you at the moment for being a black in America in the 50s.
The movie shows the journey of Sylvie played by Tessa Thompson, a young black woman who works for her father in their record shop and is also currently engaged to a soldier named Lacy, who is wealthy and perfect to be Sylvie’s husband. In comes, Robert, played by Nnamdi Asomugha who is a jazz saxophonist and needs to find a job to pay his bills. A love story starts between them in the streets of New York City, as they go around having fun, dancing around, staying up late, and basically doing everything that young couples would do, but reality hits them hard when Robert and his bandmates get an offer to play in Paris, he asks Sylvie to come with them, which she denies because she needs to do something for herself too.
A change of events and years later, Sylvie is out here trying to follow her passion in the world of TV, but behind the camera. She wants to be an assistant producer, a dream she has been harnessing for a long time. The dream and passion haven’t stopped even after she has become a mother and a wife now, she is out here fighting and chasing for the thing that’s her. She surprises everyone as a black woman getting such a job and being successful at it too in the era of the 50s.
Sylvie’s Love is about following your dreams even if that means you need to put a hold on your love life. The movie is directed by Eugene Ashe, who also is the writer and the producer of the movie. The cast of the movie besides Thompson and Asomugha are Ryan Mitchelle Bathe, Aja Naomi King, Rege Jon Page, Eva Longoria along with others. The movie premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.