From Book to Film 2026: Essential American Voices – Passing (2021)
- Sat, Aug 1
- Sun, Aug 2
Director: Rebecca Hall Run Time: 98 min. Rating: PG-13 Release Year: 2021
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, André Holland, Bill Camp, Ruth Negga, Tessa Thompson
Country: United States, United Kingdom, Canada
Language: English
From Book to Film at Gateway Film Center
The essential summer film series returns! Admission is free with your library card. Don’t have a card? You can apply for one online.
No advanced tickets are available on From Book to Film screenings. Visit our Ticket Center on the day of the screening to grab your tickets and reserve your spot!
See the 2026 lineup
“full of passion and profound longing, highlighted by two controlled but devastating performances”
—Tim Grierson for Screen Daily
About the film:
World Premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Two Black women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, can “pass” as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in late 1920s New York. After a chance encounter reunites the former childhood friends, their lives become more deeply intertwined, and Passing becomes a riveting examination of obsession, repression and the lies people tell themselves and others to protect their carefully constructed realities.
About the filmmaker:
Award-winning actress Rebecca Hall has had roles in major studio productions, art house features, on the world’s most respected stages, and in various series, including her BAFTA-winning role in Julian Jarrold’s Red Riding: 1974. She received critical acclaim for her film performances beginning with her first feature roles in Tom Vaughan’s Starter For 10 and Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, followed by films like Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona, Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, Ben Affleck’s The Town, Antonio Campos’ Christine, Angela Robinson’s Professor Marston & The Wonder Women, Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai, and most recently, in David Brucker’s thriller The Night House, which premiered at Sundance in 2020.
For her feature directorial debut Passing, Hall, who has a family legacy of passing, felt personally connected to the story in Nella Larsen’s celebrated 1929 novel. Read more.
See our upcoming films