With their sophomore feature, Shatara Michelle Ford (TEST PATTERN) puts their singular stamp on the American road movie. After an unceremonious layoff, Z (Denée Benton, “The Gilded Age”) embarks on a trip across the Midwestern United States in search of a friend that has seemingly disappeared off the grid. Traveling with her two closest friends, these three queer black femmes find their priorities tested as shapeshifting threats in each city expose (inter)personal and ideological fractures. Tender and expansive, Ford has created an ode to chosen family and the radical act of claiming space to dream —and exist— beyond the systems of an increasingly fraught country.