Miss Juneteenth

A soulful and uplifting drama of mother-daughter bonds and deferred dreams.

Struggling single mother and former beauty queen Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie) pours all her energy and money into preparing her daughter Kai to win the same Miss Juneteenth pageant she herself won as a teenager. She is determined that Kai should make more of the subsequent opportunities than she was able to, but rebellious Kai is more concerned with her high-school dance team and her crush on a classmate. This feature debut of writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples, inspired by her own upbringing in Texas where the annual Miss Juneteenth pageant takes place, is a soulful but uplifting drama of mother-daughter bonds and deferred dreams.