Young actress makes waves in impressive studio feature debut
IMTA Press Release
March 23, 2007
Pride released nationwide Friday, March 23, 2007
There are no shortcuts to a dream. – Pride Tagline
The year is 1973, and Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard), a college-educated African-American, can't find a job. Driven by his love of competitive swimming, Jim refurbishes an abandoned recreational pool in a down-at-its-heels Philadelphia neighborhood with the help of its custodian Elston (Bernie Mac). But when the pool is marked for demolition, Jim fights back – by starting the city's first African-American swim team. Recruiting teens from the streets, Jim struggles to transform a motley team of novices into capable swimmers – all in time for the upcoming state championships. But as racism, violence and an unsympathetic city official threaten to tear the team apart, Jim must do everything he can to convince his swimmers that victory, both in and out of the pool, is within their reach.
Based on true events, Lionsgate's “Pride” is by turns comic, rousing and poignant, but overall a triumphant story about team spirit and courage in the face of overwhelming odds. Philadelphia native and IMTA alum Regine Nehy, 19, stars as the lone girl on the youth swim team. Her character, Willie, is a headstrong young black female who just barges in and announces she wants to swim. “Willie wants to do something with herself and her life,” explains Nehy. “She doesn't want to be on the streets hanging around the guys. She wants to show that women won't be held back just because someone says something isn’t a good idea.”
Since competing at IMTA in New York of 2000 and signing with KSA, Nehy has worked on building an impressive resume. After a starring role in the 2005 Lifetime network movie “Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story,” with Jamie Gertz and Ernie Hudson, she was cast in another starring role an episode of the hit drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” playing a young pregnant teenager forced to give up her child. She also snagged a starring role in the independent feature “Weapons,” a story of a series of brutal, seemingly random youth-related killings over the course of a weekend in small town in America. “Weapons” also starred IMTA alum Riley Smith and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Nehy recently completed filming “Boot Camp” (aka “Straight Edge”). A thriller about a group of troubled teens sent to a rehabilitation program in a remote camp on the island of Fiji that turns out to be a prison-like boot camp where they are abused and brainwashed. No release date has been announced.