The world of the Harlem Renaissance becomes an emotional lifeline for a troubled young college student (Anthony Mackie) in this smart and passionate debut feature by Rodney Evans. As a gay black man, the hero feels doubly isolated: macho classmates in his African-American studies course consider him a disgrace to the race, while his uncertain white lover may covet him for his skin color. But a window opens when he meets an elderly homeless man (Roger Robinson) who turns out to be poet and artist Bruce Nugent, once a colleague of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. With its black-and-white flashbacks and relentlessly earnest tone, this sometimes threatens to become a PBS documentary, yet its script is exceptionally fluid, tracing the tributaries of art, race, and sexuality that feed one’s sense of self. 90 min.