Bessie

“Survival began with a song”

Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah) is a struggling young singer in the 1920s who wants a bigger stage than the tent shows will give her. She finds a hard-edged mentor in Ma Rainey (Mo'Nique) and a first husband, Jack Gee (Michael Kenneth Williams), who has his own ideas about her career. Dee Rees follows her toward the title of Empress of the Blues, with her voice, her fame and her private life all at stake.