A Thousand and One (dir. A.V. Rockwell).

This is a wildly impressive debut film in its vivid portrait of struggle set against a changing New York City (Harlem in particular) throughout the 1990s and 2000s as seen through some of its most marginalized inhabitants. Teyana Taylor gives a quietly stunning performance as a troubled single mother trying to give her (kidnapped) son a better life and stop the cycle of poverty and neglect in the foster care system.