Precious - Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

USA, 2009, 109 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: African-American, Based on a Book, Coming of Age, Drama, Family Issues, Social Issues, Womens Issues
Programs: Red Carpet Presentations, Women + Film
Language: English

DIRECTOR: Lee Daniels
Producer: Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness, Oprah Winfrey (exec), Tyler Perry (exec), Lisa Cortes (exec)
Editor: Joe Klotz
Screenwriter: Geoffrey Fletcher
Cinematographer: Andrew Dunn
Principal Cast: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz
US Distributor: Lionsgate Films

Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a morbidly obese 16-year-old in 1980s Harlem, is pregnant with a second child by her father and brutally abused by her mother (comedienne Mo’Nique in an astonishing performance). Expelled from school because of her condition, Precious is nudged by her junior high principal toward an alternative program, where she finds a slow-growing miracle in a kind teacher (Paula Patton) who takes her under her wing and begins to nurture in her a sense of self-esteem and hope. Meanwhile, Precious meets sterner stuff in a welfare worker – played by an unexpectedly illuminating and glammed-down Mariah Carey – who pushes her toward self-reliance. Where Precious once took refuge in fantasies about music-video stardom and adoring, sexy lovers, now she finds support among her classmates and from a handsome nurse (Lenny Kravitz) who befriends her. Newly emboldened, Precious takes her life, and the life of her child, into her own hands to finally confront the mother who fights tooth and nail to bring her as low as she can and keep her there.

Based on the 1996 novel 'Push' by poet Ramona Lofton – a long-time urban social worker and teacher better known by the pen name Sapphire – Precious has won exuberant accolades, along with Oscar buzz for Mo’Nique. Second-time director Lee Daniels also served as producer of the Academy Award–winning Monster’s Ball.

In cooperation with Worldviews Cinema, Parent Pathways, Three Sistahs, and the Pan-African Arts Society

Official Film Website