Summary: Maye (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) is grappling with the loss of her aunt, Amanda Fisher, who died of breast cancer. While cleaning out the house she shared with her aunt, she has interactions with several people who help the grieving process. A tour de force of emotions, touched with sadness, but ultimately resulting in inspiration and optimism.

Review: I Will Follow is Ava DuVernay’s first feature-length film that is not a documentary, but she is no stranger to cinema. She was the director behind the eye-opening documentary This is The Life and BET’s recent My Mic Sounds Nice. In a time where filmmakers are suddenly birthed because they have a digital camera and WiFi, DuVernay is refreshing. The UCLA grad has a long resume and has taken the time to understand the art of making films.

I Will Follow is an independent movie, but it could easily stand next to any Hollywood blockbuster drama with its unique storytelling, polished cinematography and ferocious actors. Independent or not, to date, I Will Follow is the best film of 2010. The flick made its world premiere at the 2010 14th Annual Urbanwor...m Festival this past weekend.

In less-is-more fashion, I Will Follow takes place in one location with Richardson-Whitfield giving the best performance of her 20-plus-year career. Her character Maye spent the past year caring for her aunt living with breast cancer, causing deep friction with her aunt’s daughter, Fran, played by the outstanding Michole White.

I Will Follow could’ve easily fallen into the trite chick-flick trappings of cry, laugh, find a man and walking away in the sunset. However, the movie is brilliantly unpredictable, the true personification of dramatic filmmaking. It’s neither happy nor sad, just boldly human.

Richardson-Whitfield, who is known for films like I Am Legend , floated on screen with a riveting performance that one can only hope will be recognized in some capacity this award season. There is also Omari Hardwick, who has a role in For Colored Girls, delivering a strong performance. But, he wasn’t just the sexy man on screen; while the ladies will swoon, he performs a solid monologue that is a must-see for any aspiring actors. Blair Underwood was, as usual, a force that cannot be ignored. Plus, there is Glee’s Dijon Talton, who has more lines than he has ever had on the hit TV show and held his own with veterans of the screen.

But, it was Michole White, an actress who has been consistently working for over 20 years, who rips your cinematic heart out. A scene between Richardson and White was one of the greatest moments I’ve seen between two actors on screen in the past 10 years. Its dramatic intensity stood right next to Halle Berry’s Things We Lost in the Fire or Charlize Theron’s Monster. If all things were fair in Hollywood, and if the movie gets the publicity it deserves, Michole White would have an Oscar nomination under her belt. If all things were fair…

I Will Follow revolves around the lives of African Americans, but it transcends one cultural experience. Storylines that tackle the complexities of race are important, but DuVernay proves not every Black film needs to highlight the woes of racism or poverty. Her film is sprinkled with diverse characters that range from Black, White, young, older, gay, working class—with mentions of rock & roll and hip-hop. Honestly, in most American experiences, our lives are more diverse than Hollywood depicts.

At every angle, I Will Follow is a hailing achievement for writer and director Ava DuVernay. If you need explosions, guns, gratuitous sex, or epic CGI, then I Will Follow is not for you. But, if you want a movie with a flawless script, passionate actors, tears and laughs that result in inspiration, then this is a must-see. This is a story that will stay with you for many days after. Without question, I Will Follow is a full dose of humanity and makes me proud to be associated with the film industry.

Continue to check back with BET.com for when I Will Follow will be available in your area.

"I Will Follow" doesn't tell a story so much as try to understand a woman. Through her, we can find insights into the ways we deal with death. In one way or another, every emotion in this wonderful independent film is one I've experienced myself. Grief, of course. But also anger, loneliness, confusion and a sense of lost direction. Above all, urgent conversations you have in your own mind with someone who is no longer alive. How many people, now dead, have you wanted to ask questions you should have asked when they were alive?

The film takes place during one day in a home in Topanga Canyon, just a short drive north of Los Angeles but with a sort of woodsy feeling. This is where a woman named Amanda (Beverly Todd) spent the last year of her life. She had breast cancer, she refused chemo, she wanted to die on her own terms in her own house, and died not long ago. We spend the day with her favorite niece, Maye (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), who lived with her for that last year.

Maye feels as if she's taking her next step into thin air. Amanda was a powerful and charismatic woman, a recording session drummer for rock-and-roll and jazz groups. Maye has had success as a makeup artist in Hollywood, but it was her aunt who seemed glamorous and enchanting above everyone else. Now Maye is left behind.

The film opens with an argument with the movers. There's that tension you feel when someone touches anything left behind by a dead person, and it's like they're killing them just a little more. To help her pack up things, Maye has her nephew Raven (Dijon Talton), who is distracted, annoyed, unhelpful. People come by the house all day: two guys from the Goodwill, a woman repairman from the satellite company, a neighbor. All of these small roles are cast and written to create characters who are small but very human.

The key visitor is Amanda's daughter and Raven's mother, Fran (Michole White). Through her, we get an insight into Raven's attitude toward his grandmother. Fran always believed Maye was her mother's favorite. At the end, it was Maye that Amanda chose to live with, Maye who nursed her, Maye who supported Amanda's desire to die at home without chemo. Fran blames Maye for Amanda's death — or at least for it coming so soon.

We're familiar with the five stages of grief. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Are there also stages of mourning? One of them might be Blame. We feel it's wrong for a person to die, and we want someone or something to blame. It must be someone's fault. By living with Amanda and sharing her feelings, Maye has accepted her death. But as her daughter, Fran feels closed out and blames the “favorite niece.” A lifetime of resentment wells up in a powerful scene between the two women.

What is particularly human about "I Will Follow," which was written and directed by Ava DuVernay, a documentarian making her first feature, is that she understands why Fran feels that way. There's no attempt to make Maye the good character and Fran the bad one. They both have valid reasons for their emotions. And all the people who pass through the house that day (there are about 12) come from feelings we understand and perhaps have shared. One who particularly struck me was the neighbor, maybe contemplating his own mortality, who didn't know Amanda that well. They apparently talked only over the fence. It's clear to me that as they talked about their gardens and the pleasant weather, they shared unspoken feelings that they were comrades in the process of leaving life. Another important visitor is Troy (Omari Hardwick), Maye's sorta boyfriend. As they speak, we understand instinctively their fondness and also a certain reserve; these two don't easily give away their hearts.

Beverly Todd, a beautiful woman who has been in countless movies and TV shows since the late 1960s, has an important presence here in many flashbacks, some of them dreamy or fragmented, as Amanda. She easily evokes the magic Maye must have felt, and that gives weight to the present-day scenes. For Salli Richardson-Whitfield, the role of Maye is a great performance, as she embodies emotions the script wisely doesn't spell out. “I Will Follow” is an invitation to empathy. It can't have a traditional three-act structure, because every life closes in death, and only supporting characters are left on stage at the end. What goes unsaid, but not thought, is that we will all pass this way eventually.

Amanda's family is African-American. The neighbor and some of the visitors are white. Why do I mention race? I wasn't going to. This is a universal story about universal emotions. Maybe I mention it because this is the kind of film black filmmakers are rarely able to get made these days, offering roles for actors who remind us here of their gifts.

Note: DuVernay made "I Will Follow" as the first of a group of new indie African-American films; it opens March 11 in at AMC theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta and Philadelphia, and opens in Chicago March 18.