BlackStar Film Festival Coverage July 31- Aug 3, 2025

The 14th Annual BlackStar Film Festival held in Center City Philadelphia, once again checked all the boxes of a successful fest. The close proximity of the venues (Kimmel Center, Wilma Theater and Suzanne Roberts Theater) are ideal, particularly, I would imagine for travelers from other cities and countries. The theme this year was Cinema for Liberation, an important declaration in the face of all the Project 2025 atrocities happening with little to no opposition. But with films and panel discussion such as these held over the 4 days (Thursday, July 31st – Sunday, Aug 3rd) we move forward with hope enjoying a joyful, creative film community. #BSFF25 #CinemaforLiberation

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DAY 1

DON’T CRY, BUTTERFLY (Feature Narrative) – Writer/Director Dương Diệu Linh

My Take Away: gotta admit I lost the thread of where this film went. The synopsis sounds like a good ride, but not only is it melancholy, but by the end, indiscernible. In terms of filmmaking though, there’s a drumming, cleansing the space, charged montage, which worked really well.

Panel Discussion: StoryCorps Presents: BRIGHTNESS IN BLACK

Panel:
Kelvin Phillips is the Program Director for Brightness in Black
Sofiya Ballin, Executive Producer Brightness in Black
Janine Spruill Founder and Executive Director, Lil’ Filmmakers Inc.
Filmmaker Marcellus “Talking Walls”
Filmmaker Ruby Rose Collins “All The Love I Could Handle”

My Take Away: What a blessing that these two organizations Brightness in Black and Lil Filmmakers have joined forces in creating, archiving, mentoring, elevating stories of black & brown life, in forms of simplicity to monumental.

BONUS! Thank you StoryCorps and Urban Archivist for my JORDANS!

During the Brightness in Black Conversation, Paige Walls from @phillywalls @urbanarchivist handed out cards asking the audience to write just a 6 word story on black joy. What immediately came to mind for me is still my love of GoKarts. I thought I was going to be a race car driver when I grew up, but I also loved guns, archery and running, where’s that little girl today? But on vacation, I can still find a piece of her racing around a little track, pedal to the medal. My little story won me a pair of Nike Air Jordan Dunks 1 Retro – Yay!

HERE’S A GOOD PORTION OF THE STORYCORPS PANEL DISCUSSION:

Shorts Block : ANTECESSOR

Cause old folks is the nation. — Toni Cade Bambara

jasmin lynea (member of SIFTMedia 215 ) – DELLA CAN FLY! – a Black folktale set in the early 2000s. In hopes of reuniting with his long-lost sister, an eccentric old man is in desperate need to prove to his family that she flew away. With the help of his grieving 10-year-old great-niece, they rectify the family myth, proving it to be true.

My Take Away: Wonderful blending of childhood memory and magical realism. The young actress has the soulful quality called for in this thoughtful child.

DeeDee Casimir – LAST HOORAH AT G-BABY’S – After blowing through her cash inheritance, an aimless and apathetic art school grad must come up with five months of back rent or risk eviction from her rent-controlled apartment in a gentrifying Brooklyn.

My Take Away: Excellent dialogue and confrontations. The humor put me in mind of Keke Palmer and Sza’s movie “One of Them Days”

Mike Elsherif (not in attendance) MAQLUBA – Laila, a Palestinian American drummer, visits her grandmother in her new apartment during a powerful storm under the guise of helping her unpack. But her nefarious goals slowly unfold as they delve deeper into the mystical, fateful night.

My Take Away: Her agenda versus a genuine love for her grandmother, and remaining belief in their old ways is a palpable struggle for Laila.

Marcellus – TALKING WALLS – Multiple voices reflect on the language, sounds, touch, history, and choice of public and private Black and queer spaces.

My Take Away: What a find! Alfred Johnson, a queer elder living in the Boston-Edison neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan since 1969. His remembered stories of his colorful past had me crying and dying in all the ways.

HERE’S A GOOD PORTION OF THE ANTECESSOR PANEL DISCUSSION:

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing is a biography of the influential writer Toni Cade Bambara, whose literary works and film collaborations were a catalyzing force in 20th century cultural and political movements. The documentary is made up of stories shared by friends and colleagues including Toni Morrison, Nikky Finney and Haile Gerima.

MY TAKE AWAY: The whitewashing of America was and is an insidiously, ingenious diabolical plot, which if left unchecked easily becomes the norm. Which is why the Trump Administration is so determined to turn back time to make certain the next generation is as clueless to our actual American History as I was coming up. It would take way too long to list the number of amazing things I’ve learned in the last 20-25 years about my race and culture – but one relevant example being, when I saw Raoul Peck‘s documentary I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO in 2016, I could only say I believe I’d heard the name James Baldwin prior to seeing the film (which by the way, these two films should be screened together again and again). When I first started attending Blackstar 14 years ago, I started hearing the name Toni Cade Bambara spoken with reverence. Once again, I was simply clueless as to who they referred. I did a Google search of course, but that did not come close to describing the woman revealed in this documentary by Louis Massiah, founder of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia and Monica Henriquez.

I’m always amazed at people who not only find what Deepak Chopra calls their Dharma (purpose, which suggests that each individual has a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it.) but are also able to live it so fully in service to others. TCB allows us to get to know and remember the spirit of this novelist, filmmaker, cultural worker and true friend to so many, told mainly through the lens of those who knew her and were touched by her words and generosity. Toni demonstrated a power for organizing and speaking in the arenas of social justice, women’s rights, civil rights, human rights. But it’s the simpler stories that struck me – helping an illiterate couple with their reading and writing skills so they could secure a home. Coming to make certain an old acquaintance who kinda disappeared from life after having a baby, got out of the house. Jumping in to stuff envelopes, when her involvement in a project was far above that task. And just seeming to treat everyone she met with equal interest and value, quizzing “What’s the plan?”.

And yet, the doc does little to tell us of Toni’s inner life. We know she had a child out of wedlock with no mention of the father. We hear some of how she transformed from fictional writing to using her words to inspire and activate change, but not much on how her work affected her personally; what challenges it provided; what did she feel she sacrificed? Louis says in the below Q&A that wasn’t the focus of the piece, and I get that. Not to mention the fact that she never gave that kind of in-depth interview. Don’t get me wrong, after the screening we all leapt to our feet in a well-deserved standing O. And the doc will undoubtedly make my end of the year Top 10. However, I can’t help but wish we had just a little more personal insight into TCB to round out the film and her time here on the planet.

HERE’S A GOOD PORTION OF THE TCB PANEL DISCUSSION:

DAY 2

WE WANT THE FUNK! Documentary

We Want the Funk! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul and early jazz roots to its rise into the public consciousness.

My Take Away: Stanley Nelson and Nicole London’s We Want the Funk! doesn’t just tell the story of funk — it struts, slides, and downright grooves its way through one of the most electrifying chapters in music history.

Tracing the genre’s DNA from African drum circles and gospel shouts, through soul and early jazz, to the wild, technicolor and Afrofuturism explosion of the 1970s, Nelson and London highlight the icons who turned funk into a movement. James Brown’s earth-shaking dynamism? Check. George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic mothership? Absolutely. Labelle’s genre-bending reinvention and Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat revolution? Front and center. The film doesn’t just celebrate their music — but reminds us that funk is as much about attitude as it is about bass lines. The doc has a great time showing how funk became a soundtrack for liberation, style, and unapologetic Black joy!

Those interviewed like Kirk Franklin and Marcus Miller don’t just speak on the subject, but can’t help but demonstrate on guitar and keyboard their reverence for this genre. The filmmakers also make certain to connect the dots forward in time, showing funk’s fingerprints on new wave, hip-hop, and even the pulsing beats of today’s dance floors.

Is it comprehensive? Not entirely — some viewers may crave deeper dives into certain subgenres or lesser-known innovators. But at just under two hours, We Want the Funk! knows exactly what it wants to be: an ecstatic jam session in cinematic form. You leave not only humming “We want the funk!” but also appreciating the fearless artistry and social fire that gave rise to it.

HERE’S A GOOD PORTION OF THE WE WANT THE FUNK Q&A
Filmmakers: Stanley Nelson and Nicole London

DAY 3

THE DEBUTANTES (Documentary)

A coming-of-age portrait, The Debutantes follows an intergenerational group of Black women and girls in post-industrial Canton, Ohio, as they revitalize the debutante ball. Director Contessa Gayle

MY TAKE AWAY: Contessa Gayles’ The Debutantes takes us behind the sparkling gowns and choreographed bows of Black cotillion culture, in Canton, OH. Organized by Dr. Nikki Bush and Dr. Jennifer Ross, offering a graceful yet quietly challenging portrait of what it means for young women to “come out” in a tradition rooted in respectability, family legacy, and the pursuit of belonging. Much like Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s 2024 documentary Daughters, (click for T&T review) which explored father-daughter dances for girls with incarcerated fathers, Gayles’ film lingers on the emotional undercurrents beneath ceremonial rites — the pride, the longing, and the negotiations of identity happening in real time.

What elevates The Debutantes is its willingness to hold space for contradictions. These young women — poised in white gloves and satin — openly question whether this ritual is empowering, exclusionary, or both. The mothers and grandmothers, meanwhile, reflect on the cotillion’s role as a passage into Black excellence and visibility, even as times change. Gayles captures these exchanges with a cinéma vérité intimacy, letting the girls’ laughter, side-eye, and quiet moments of self-reflection speak louder than any narration could.

Stylistically, the film leans toward observational warmth rather than investigative bite, which means some deeper questions around colorism, class, gender, and modern womanhood are only lightly touched on rather than fully excavated. Still, as an affectionate snapshot of tradition meeting a new generation, The Debutantes is resonant and moving — especially in its closing ball sequence, where pride, pageantry, and personal growth merge into something genuinely stirring.

HERE’S A GOOD PORTION OF THE DEBUTANTES Q&A
Director: Contessa Gayles, Subject: Dierdre Robbins,
Editor: Stefani Saintonge, Producer: Alyse Shorland

SABBATICAL (Narrative Feature)

SABBATICAL: A banker returns unannounced to her childhood home and her overbearing mother, whom she hardly visits. Unbeknownst to her mother, a life-changing secret brought her back, threatening to upend their relationship forever.

MY TAKE AWAY: The title might suggest a carefree hiatus, but in Karabo Lediga’s Sabbatical, time off is anything but voluntary. Mid-thirties ex-banker Lesego (Mona Monyane) played with layered restraint, arrives unannounced at her mother Doris’ (Clementine Mosimane) doorstep in the small town of Thorntree. Her once-polished life in Johannesburg is in shambles—financial regulators have frozen her accounts, and she’s facing suspicion over a risky investment scheme that devastated thousands of miner widows. All facts she has no intentions of divulging to her mother. Instead she claims she’s suffering from burnout and asks to stay in her old room for a couple of days. Only Lesego’s mother is not the type to give her daughter the space she so obviously needs – instead she’s constantly questioning her, asking for money, won’t let her smoke, makes her attend a women’s group where Doris acts as Treasurer, they ask Lesego for investment advice and then don’t take it.

The mother-daughter dynamic simmers with spoken and unspoken grievances and old shared wounds. Lediga draws sharp contrasts between generations: Doris, molded by the grit and caution of an apartheid-era life, and Lesego, who came of age in a freer, more globally connected South Africa—seduced by the glittering yet precarious promises of high finance only to have her white colleague throw her under the bus. Any yet Lesego is not a completely sympathetic character, she’s shown to be quite self-centered in many instances, particularly the way she carelessly uses her neighbor/old high school friend and decimates the ego of another old acquaintance. And yet it’s hard not to root for her, putting me in mind of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Flea Bag”. The film’s pacing feels American and deftly balances the family tension with the looming threat of legal and public disgrace.

HERE’S A GOOD PORTION OF SABBATICAL Q&A
Writer/Director: Karabo Lediga

DAY 4

PHILADELPHIA FILMMAKER LAB

BlackStar’s Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab is designed to uplift emerging and mid-career artists in the Greater Philadelphia area, supporting four projects by Black, Brown and Indigenous filmmakers with mentorship, funding and critical feedback over the course of a year-long program.

Every year the quality of the films to emerge from this Lab process keeps growing. All very impressive for different reasons. The four 2025 fellows – Andrew Bilindabagabo, ADAMSTOWN | Chisom Chieke, FOOD FOR THE SOUL | Kristal Sotomayora, LAS COSAS QUE BRILLAN and Walé Oyéjidé RUN, SISTER JOAN received mentorship throughout the fellowship including feedback on works-in-progress, advice on working with crew and career guidance from a working director. BlackStar provided $50,000 in production funds and act as an executive producer on each short film created during the Lab, which premiered Sunday, August 3rd during BlackStar Film Festival in 2025. The BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab is presented with lead support from Black Experience on Xfinity, with additional support from Independence Public Media Foundation, William Penn Foundation and Wyncote Foundation.