Parity Pipeline

Genre

Synopsis

Ronnie, 17, lives with a loving family of women in the tough Afro-Caribbean community of Newburgh, New York. She remains close to her incarcerated brother, Glen, 20s, through phone calls. While protecting one of her sisters during a street altercation, Ronnie recognizes Fiyah, 17, a friend arrested years ago for holding up a gas station at gunpoint. Cops arrest Ronnie and Fiyah, and the girls are assigned 200 hours of community service. Ronnie’s mother, Roseann, 50, afraid of losing another child to the system, clamps down and urges Ronnie to make a plan for her life. Feeling stifled by pressure from her family, Ronnie pleads with her friend and local weed dealer, Gidian, 30s, for a job to save up money for her own place. Gidian turns Ronnie down and suggests she work in his garden or start braiding hair for cash. Ronnie visits a trap house to inquire about cheap rooms for rent and discovers the price is out of reach. But this doesn’t thwart her determination to find distance from her family. During community service in a clean-up crew, Ronnie spots Fiyah trying to drown herself in the river. Ronnie saves Fiyah, and they reconnect after years of being apart. Fiyah offers to help Ronnie make money, but Ronnie is suspicious of Fiyah’s intent and blows her off. After scraping by with little cash from braiding, Ronnie follows Fiyah, and the two begin shoplifting and peddling drugs and contraband to upstate visitors and white college kids. As Ronnie and Fiyah's relationship develops, they fall in love, and Ronnie becomes distant from her family. When Roseann walks in on them sleeping naked together, she tells Ronnie that Fiyah is not welcome in her house. That afternoon, the family visits Glen in prison without telling Ronnie. Angry, Ronnie alienates her family, and she and Fiyah hatch a plan to leave town. On the road to their new life, Fiyah convinces Ronnie to shoplift again. When Ronnie is caught, Fiyah disappears. Ronnie bails herself out of jail with the rest of her savings. Back in Newburgh, she encounters Fiyah, who begs forgiveness, but Ronnie is disillusioned. Separated from her family and betrayed by Fiyah, Ronnie grabs Fiyah’s keys, drives off in her car, and considers driving into the river. Ronnie mashes the brakes just before the water’s edge and the floodgates of tears open. Ronnie visits Gidian and works in his garden. She clips flowers as an olive branch for her sisters, then shores up to return home. Roseann learns Glen will be released from prison, which reunites the family in celebration. Ronnie burns Fiyah's belongings and their stolen loot in a bonfire. On clean-up crew duty the next day, Ronnie works on a hill atop the Hudson River. Here, she views Newburgh from above. This shift in perspective opens Ronnie’s eyes to the fact that the best version of herself might be to remain with the people she loves.