Dane Baptiste: The Chocolate Chip

Bamboozled

2000

Frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea, producer Pierre Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of in an attempt to get fired: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.

Vox Populi

2008

Vox Populi is a black comedy about an experienced politician suffering from a midlife crisis. When he comes into contact with the common-man's logic of his new in-laws, this has a far-reaching effect on both his political and his personal life.

The Fairchild

2022

The new hire and black membership desk assistant at an exclusive museum becomes a special part of the membership experience and questions his new role when staff and visitors obsess over him and his hair rather than the art on the walls.

Sunday at Il Posto Accanto

2025

Sunday at Il Posto Accanto is a deeply personal, hybrid film blending documentary techniques with narrative storytelling. Set in a beloved East Village restaurant during the early days of reopening after the pandemic, it stars Victor Rasuk, Danny Hoch, and the real people who made the place a sanctuary for community. At once funny and poignant, the film is a meditation on grief, resilience, and the small rituals—both absurd and sacred—that keep us connected. It’s rich with character, brimming with the kind of imperfect charm only real life can deliver. Il Posto is about a neighborhood, a family—chosen and otherwise—and the quiet beauty of coming together after isolation. Made on a modest budget with a lot of heart, it captures a moment in time when the simple act of gathering felt nothing short of holy.

FAMISHED

A Sri Lankan couple struggling to make ends meet have their lives upended when a yuppie Australian couple enter their small eatery and wreak havoc.

Hairspray

2007

Pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad auditions to be on Baltimore's most popular dance show - The Corny Collins Show - and lands a prime spot. Through her newfound fame, she becomes determined to help her friends and end the racial segregation that has been a staple of the show.

The L.A. Riot Spectacular

2005

The controversial satire The LA Riot Spectacular plays for mordent laughs the events that consumed L.A. in 1992, after the police officers on trial for beating motorist Rodney King were found innocent. The city was engulfed by a massive riot, but the film plays these moments for laughs. In addition to recreating some of the images seen on television, the film skewers a variety of figures including the police, the media, and the citizens of the city.

Tampopo

1985

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.