Yelling to the Sky

Yelling to the Sky is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by Victoria Mahoney and starring Zoë Kravitz. The film premiered In Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Bear. Plot The film starts out with quiet, studious, high schooler, Sweetness O'Hara riding her bike with a friend down the street, when neighborhood bully Latonya, her boyfriend, and friends begins picking on her. The boyfriend threatens to take her bike, unless she can beat him in a race to a tree down the street. Sweetness agrees, taking off running. The bully comes up behind her and pushes her to the ground, proceeding to kick her. Sweetness' older, pregnant sister, Ola, comes to her rescue, beating up the bully. The girls return home to their emotionally unstable mother, Lorene, and caring, but violent father, Gordon. After an altercation between the parents, Lorene takes off, telling Sweetness she would return. Gordon takes off as well, with Sweetness saying she wished he stayed wherever it was he went. A few days later, as Ola is helping Sweetness with her homework and ironing, Gordon returns. He hits Ola after her choice to wear a jacket inside the house. Ola then packs up and moves in with her probation-serving, abusive boyfriend and baby's father, leaving Sweetness with just her father. Months go by and Ola returns with a baby girl named Esther. Not too long after, Lorene returns as well, in an absent state of mind.