Contemporary artist Titus Kaphar, known for his powerful and thought-provoking paintings that explore Black identity, ventured into a new medium to tell a deeply personal story — film. In his latest project, "Exhibiting Forgiveness," Kaphar takes on the complex relationship with his father, moving from canvas to screen to address the difficult conversations he's been having within himself for years.

“This,” Kaphar explains about the project, “was originally me writing so that I could tell my sons about my life, and how different my life is from theirs. Then it evolved into a script. I've learned that different art forms do certain things well. Things happen in painting that can happen no place else, and there are things that happen in theater that can happen no place else. I want to be able to speak these different languages of art so that I can find the right way to say what I need to say.”

"Exhibiting Forgiveness," which hits theaters on Oct. 18, stars "Moonlight" alum André Holland as a character based on Kaphar named Tarrell, with "Deliverance" star Andra Day playing his wife, Aisha, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Tarrell’s mother. The film tells the story of Tarrell’s difficult journey with his estranged father, La’ Ron (John Earl Jelks), who returns to his life after decades of drug addiction. Now a successful painter and a father himself, Tarrell is faced with the challenge of reconciling his own trauma with the father who hurt him — a process that isn’t as simple as forgiveness.

Holland, in a moving performance, plays a man torn between the desire to heal and the hesitation to let his father back into his life. “In the beginning,” Holland tells BET.com, “Tarrell is aware that he's buried this hurt so deep inside, but he's not aware of the ways in which it's showing up in his life. So the notion of forgiving is not even a thought in his mind at the beginning. Working on the movie helped me process some of the things that were happening with my dad, too.”

"Exhibiting Forgiveness" will particularly resonate with Black men who have complicated relationships with their fathers. Many, like Tarrell, were raised by fathers who equated toughness with survival, passing down values shaped by their own struggles. Jelks, who plays La’ Ron, says this dynamic hit home for him as well. “I got a chance to see my father and my grandfather, the grandfather that I didn't know. As a father myself, I wanted to be different from my dad. And what I found out is that everybody wants to be a little different than their dad. My dad was trying to be different than his father, and I was trying to be different than my father.”

Tarrell, haunted by his past, struggles to forgive La' Ron, despite being a loving and gentle father to his own son. His journey toward healing is only encouraged when his mother, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, steps in to help broker peace between father and son. As often seen in Black families, the women bear the weight of healing. Tarrell’s wife Aisha, portrayed by Andra Day, is also invested in her husband’s healing, but with boundaries. “As Black women,” Day tells BET.com, “we are often caught in the middle, or sort of required to play second fiddle or the back burner, whether it's everyone's career or their trauma or their pain. Aisha loves him but helps him heal by loving herself as well. She shows us a different side of love that doesn’t just abandon everything she’s ever wanted to be a wife and mother, which is beautiful.”

While the film touches on reconciliation, it does not offer a typical Hollywood ending. Instead, it leaves space for audiences to reflect on their own family dynamics and the meaning of forgiveness. “The film is really about generational healing,” Kaphar shares. “I was trying to make something vulnerable and honest about my experience in the world. As we shared it with audiences, people have had this experience of, ‘That's my father too, or that's my mother, or that's my uncle.’ And in a moment where we are more divided than we've ever been, people are connecting with it.”

"Exhibiting Forgiveness" opens in theaters on Oct. 18.