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4th Annual BLACK STAR FILM FESTIVAL 2015 Round Up
This panel featured Indie Filmmakers/Producers/Media Consultants who are all women of color. These females represent storytellers and bridge-builders in the industry. They spoke on how their identity has impacted their work; why they think it’s important to claim space in film, and what fears they still hold as they continue to make strides in a still primarily white industry...
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AFFRM Launches New Distribution Label ARRAY
Ava DuVernay’s AFFRM BECOMES ARRAY “AFFRM’s new label ARRAY is built to serve the tremendous burst of black cinematic talent across the globe, filmmakers who are embracing new technologies to tell their stories by any means necessary,” DuVernay said in a statement. “The goal is to expand the brand cultivated over our first four theatrical releases by reaching new audiences via both digital and traditional platforms,” “Selma” director Ava DuVernay has given an extreme makeover to her 5-year-old distribution company. Previously known as AFFRM (African American Film Festival Releasing Movement), the filmmaker has relaunched and expanded the company as Array. “I’ve always felt as if there were so many films…
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Commentary – DARK GIRLS
Dark Girls is co-directed and produced by Bill Duke (Duke Media) and D. Channsin Berry (Urban Winter Entertainment) the film explores the deep-seated bias and attitudes about skin color; particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture...
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Support AFFRM – Kinyarwanda at select theaters this weekend
AFFRM is the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement – empowering black independent filmmakers with collaborative, simultaneous theatrical distribution in multiple markets. Last March AFFRM got behind Ava DuVernay’s I Will Follow (click for T & T commentary). Giving it a chance to reach a wider audience. This weekend AFFRM is launching Alrick Brown’s KINYARWANDA. Which I will screen on Sunday. The below video from Reelblack features Brown talking about the film, AFFRM and the state of African American Cinema in general. For all its greatness, “Hotel Rwanda” nevertheless used the conventional Hollywood technique of a movie star as a protagonist to serve as the audience’s entry point. None of the…
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DIY filmmaking, marketing and distribution w/ Filmmaker Ava DuVernay
I asked Ava how is she able to do all of this while also running her PR firm, she said, yes, she's a little busy, but she has a hybrid staff of really amazing people who work with her on both ends, and she's now super selective about the projects she takes on in terms of media and marketing; her current selection being the film The Help with Viola Davis. "I take on projects I'm passionate about now."...
