BlackStar (Virtual) Film Festival Coverage – August 20-26,2020

Originally Posted August 30, 2020

The 9th Annual BlackStar Film Festival (Aug. 20 to 26) in Philadelphia online due to COVID-19.   Click images in Gallery to enlarge

Heidi Saman Lulu Wang in Conversation 8.26

BlackStar Solidarity Is Not A Trend Panel

Dark City Beneath the Beat

Black Boy Joy Short film Martina Lee BlackStar Film Festival

Daughters Of art

Daughters Of GirlTrek

Daughters of Tarana Burke

Daughters Of Latham Thomas

BlackStar Mothering

Le Anne Lindsay Marvelous Movie Maven Blackstar Virtual Film Festival 2020

BlackStar Panel Day 4

As Above 5 Questions for Sewra G. Kidane

Blackstar Rekia Boyd

Bilal Midnight Oil

BlackStar Shorts Screening BSFF20 Virtual Film Festival Aug20-26

Keon Film E.G.-Bailey BlackStar Tinseltine

Madeline Anderson in Conversation with Louis Massiah Michelle Materre

Malise QA

BSFF20 LinkedIN

BlackStar Logo 2020

I’ve got to say, I enjoyed a Virtual Film Festival far, far more than I anticipated. I still felt as if I was attending an event. I liked that Blackstar Founder/Director Maori Karmael Holmes, Rashid Zakat, Rich Medina, Dr. Yaba Blay and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter  did a little Live Facebook show at 9am each day (presented by Color of Change), interviewing a filmmaker or guest with fun segments and reminding the audience of what was in store for the day.

DAUGHTERS OF was my favorite doc of those I screened. By Shantrelle P. Lewis in her directorial debut. Produced by GirlTrek cofounders T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, interviewed along with Tarana Burke, activist, community organizer and founder of the #MeToo movement; Latham Thomas, doula, doula educator and lifestyle maven; Brittney Cooper, author, cultural critic and associate professor in the department of Africana Studies/Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University and other notable Black women are featured sharing stories of hope and healing through lineage.

Not only are these women’s stories beautiful to hear, but their makeup was flawless! Not to mention, the literal framing of the interviews done with creative backgrounds and cutouts drew you more visually into the women’s responses.  

More and more, ancestry seems to be a buzz word right now in the black community. Honoring them, calling upon them and claiming our Ancestors to give weight to our sense of place.

RADHAMUSPRIME is an awesome name for a woman approaching 40 deciding to become a rap artist.  Which happens in Radha Blank’s semi-autobiographical debut film THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION which screened during BlackStar Film Festival 2020 and won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Directing Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Playwright Radha Blank was once a notable recipient of a “30 Under 30 Award, but somewhere along the way her 30’s didn’t turn out to be as promising as was predicted.  Now she’s approaching 40 in a few short weeks and feels a desperate need to do something with her stalled career.  She’s written a play about Harlem gentrification which she’s shopping around with the help of her GBFF from High School turned successful manager, Archie (Peter Y. Kim) who has far more high profile clients than Radha, but works hardest for her out of friendship and belief in her talents, yet she never seems appreciative… READ MORE

AWARDS

UPDATE 8/20/2020:

• BE Sure to Follow Tinsel & Tine’s Social Media during the Festival for Updates and Coverage.
• BE Sure to Check Out the Blackstar Fest SCHEDULE EVERY DAY
• BE Sure to Check Out BlackStar Fests FACEBOOK LIVE PAGE
• BE Sure to Check Out Tinsel & Tine’s 5 QUESTIONS for BLACKSTAR FILMMAKERS
• Once You Have Your Tickets or Passes  Where to Watch – https://watch.blackstarfest.org/

Come back to this Page Post-Festival
where I’ll include #MIniMovieReviews of anything I really loved!

UPDATE 8/18/20 – 5 QUESTIONS FOR BLACKSTAR FILMMAKERS
Tinsel & Tine started a 5 Questions Series a couple years ago as a great way to highlight and get to know some of the filmmakers screening their Shorts during various Film Festivals in Philly. It later expanded to include actors. What I love about these interviews is how different and revealing each person’s responses are to the same questions. As you’ll see:

T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film and/or the theme that is the heart of your film?

Johnny Ray Gill: DVD & CHILL comes from my desire to tell a Hitchcockian story with people of color at the center. It’s Tyler Perry meets Alfred Hitchcock and examines predators and opportunists and how they hunt one another. LA serves as the perfect backdrop because it’s a place these people tend to flock. The film explores colorism and the seductive power of light skin and also explores the toxicity of celebrity worship. Culturally Americans are obsessed with celebrity and it’s a huge issue. It’s why a reality tv personality is President and crowds cheer when Oprah, the Rock, and Kanye flirt with running for the highest office. Many look to celebrities & the wealthy like deities to solve complex problems and seek their counsel in crisis no matter how unqualified. Celebrity is unmatched currency and in the film Cyrano, the half-brother of Shemar Moor spends his brother’s currency like a sticky trap to obtain what he otherwise couldn’t. Zora, the other title character feels a dire need to own this celebrity. She needs to taste it, hold it, and caress it for herself, which is why she’s on an almost spiritual mission to do so. All these themes excite me and were the driving force behind bringing the film to fruition.

T&T:  Tell us a bit about the music of your film? OR Does food play a big part in your film? Or answer both.

JRG: The score was done incredibly by composer Cedie Janson. It’s sexy, dangerous, and does a tremendous job at shifting with the tone of the film and illuminating the subtext. Food does play a role in DVD & CHILL, it’s just not a food someone would typically order off a menu, lmao.

T&T:  Was there a point where you almost didn’t finish your film? And if so, what pushed you forward? OR What’s been the most memorable response you’ve received thus far from anyone after seeing your film?

JRG: The responses that mean the most are the many that tell me they want to see more. They want to know what happens next after Cyrano walks out the door and knowing the film can be expanded makes me feel very warm and fuzzy inside! To know that there’s more to mine from this story and subject matter and folks are excited about the film becoming a feature-length is always a blessing. So naturally, we’re diving back in and expanding so we can give the people what they want.

T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to the screen.

JRG: I want to give a shout out to my confidants and co-producers Patrick Jean-Joseph and Aleeah Sutton. They’ve been gracious enough to be sounding boards from idea to production and now to screening at festivals. I can be a lot to deal with when working on a project. My Virgo energy has my mind jumping this way and that and their often calming presence and helping hands and minds were invaluable. I’d also like to shout out Sheila Nortley, my mom Tangela, Lorene Chesley and my constant collaborator and fantastic cinematographer Colton Davie. It was a privilege to shoot on 35mm and I can’t wait to work on the next project with him. He’s so terrific.

T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 9th Annual BlackStar Film Festival?

JRG: It means a tremendous amount. I screened my short Pas De Restes at Blackstar in 2013 and it’s an honor to be back with DVD & CHILL. BlackStar is one of the best film festivals in the country and soon and very soon I’ll have a feature at the fest as well!

Click HERE to Read ALL Filmmakers Responses

UPDATE 8/16/20 – PROGRAM BOOK

UPDATE: 7/25/20 – FILM LINE UP!

Tickets are now available on the festival’s website HERE, with day passes starting at $5 and a full festival pass available for $100, which is priced to include a donation to BlackStar. 

BlackStar is working with digital distribution channel CineSend to make films easily accessible to festival goers in their own homes. Ticketed attendees will be able to view all the films through a single online portal, which will be available at watch.blackstarfest.org.

Get Your Tickets Now

This year’s lineup includes more than 80 films, including 24 world premieres and representing over 20 countries.

Among the World Premieres are:

• Unapologetic, a feature documentary by Ashley O’Shay, that takes a deep look into the Movement for Black Lives in Chicago, providing an intimate peek into the personal and political battles that transform the city.

• Tayler Montague’s debut short In Sudden Darkness, about a working-class family trying to stay afloat in the midst of a city-wide blackout

• The short documentary You Hide Me, made in 1970 but banned widely upon completion. Ghanian filmmaker Nii Kwate Owoo examines the colonization of African Art in the British Museum, London, gaining unprecedented access into the museum’s secret underground vaults.

• Shantrelle Patrice Lewis’ debut feature Daughters Of, which examines the immediate and critical importance of self-care and healing for Black women.

• Raishad Hardnett, Lauren M. Schneiderman & Cassie Owens’ Legendary: 30 Years of Philly Ballroom, an inside look into the effort to preserve Philadelphia’s ballroom scene, a Black and Latinx LGBTQ safe-space that has endured for 30 years.

Other highlights include:

• Martina Lee’s Black Boy Joy, a short about two generations of Black men, living within the same household, juggling the demands of raising a young son with autism while adapting to their new normal after the death of a loved one

• Channing Godfrey Peoples’ feature narrative Miss Juneteenth, about a former beauty queen and single mom preparing her rebellious teenage daughter for the “Miss Juneteenth” pageant

• Coded Bias, a feature documentary from director Shalini Kantayya that follows MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini and the fallout from her startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately.

• Ekwa Msangi’s Farewell Amor, a feature narrative about an Angolan immigrant whose wife and teen daughter are finally able to join him in the U.S., after 17 years apart. 

• Nationtime – Gary, a feature documentary by William Greaves about the National Black Political Convention of 1972 in Gary, Indiana.

• A Day With Jerusa from Brazilian filmmaker Viviane Ferreira, following a young medium and her 77-year-old neighbor as they travel through time and realities common to their ancestry.

• Amy Aniobi’s HONEYMOON, telling the story of a newlywed couple on their first night together––made all the more awkward, romantic and honest, because they only just met.

• Loira Limbal’s feature documentary Through The Night, presenting the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider, whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center.

• Michèle Stephenson’s Stateless, a feature documentary following the campaign of electoral hopeful Rosa Iris and revealing the depths of racial hatred and institutionalized oppression that divide Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

• maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore, directed by Sky Hopinka. The documentary follows two characters, speaking mostly in chinuk wawa, as they contemplate the afterlife, rebirth, and the place in-between.

• I ran from it and was still in it, an experimental film from Darol Olu Kae offering an intimate portrait of familial loss and separation.

• Down a Dark Stairwell, a documentary from Chinese-American Filmmaker Ursula Liang. The film looks at the complicated fight for accountability and justice after a Chinese-American police officer kills an unarmed, innocent black man in a dark stairwell of a NYC public housing project.

• Zeshawn Ali’s Two Gods, about a Muslim casket maker and ritual body washer in Newark who takes two young men under his wing and teaches them how to live better lives.

• Right Near the Beach, Gibrey Allen’s feature narrative looking at the murder of a prominent Jamaican and the public uproar caused by rumors about the secret life he may have lived.

• ROCÍO, a feature documentary from Mexican-American filmmaker Dario Guerrero. The film profiles an undocumented mother of three who, after a sudden cancer diagnosis, must choose between seeking treatment in her native Mexico or awaiting certain death in the US.

Be Sure to REGISTER FOR FREE ONLINE PANEL DISCUSSIONS (Aug 20-26) on Eventbrite. 
Links can be found on our PHILLYCALENDAR PAGE

BlackStar Film Festival is usually one of the highlights of my summer, so it’s sad to know I won’t be running around West Philly again this year, seeing great films, covering the red carpet, filming Q&A’s, attending fun events and meeting inspiring guests.

But if anyone can pull off a Virtual Film Festival that contains the same kind of energy as the live version, it’s #BlackStarFilmFest – Le Anne Lindsay

The virtual edition, promises over 90 films, live panels and special events. “I am incredibly proud of our team and the work they have done to meet the challenges of this moment and present our festival this year,” BlackStar artistic director and CEO Maori Karmael Holmes said in a statement.

“The format might be different, but our nearly decade-long mission of centering and celebrating the voices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from around the world is not,” she added.

The slate of films for the upcoming BlackStar festival will be unveiled in the coming weeks. BlackStar has tapped the digital distribution channel CineSend to stream the 9th edition’s film lineup online.

Ticketed fest-goers will stream films through a virtual portal at watch blackstarfest.org.

Last year’s festival saw the best feature narrative award go to Selah And The Spades (click for Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReview), directed by Tayarisha Poe, and the best feature documentary award was picked up by The Infiltrators, directed by Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera.

– News Via Hollywood Reporter.com

WHILE YOU’RE HERE

SEE TINSEL & TINE’S COVERAGE FROM LAST YEAR’S
BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL #BSFF19