4th Annual New Voices In Black Cinema Festival Starts Mar 27—30Posted by Wilson Morales
March 27, 2014
From Thursday, March 27 through Sunday, March 30, BAMcinématek presents New Voices in Black Cinema, the fourth annual festival co-presented by the Fort Greene-based ActNow Foundation. Reflecting the wide spectrum of views and themes within the African diasporan communities in Brooklyn and beyond, the series features three New York premieres, one world premiere, and special guests at most screenings. Home to a variety of ActNow programs since 2009, BAMcinématek continues this partnership that provides a showcase for new and established voices in black independent cinema.
Opening the festival on Friday, March 27 is Deidre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichols’ inspiring documentary Flex is Kings (2013), exploring the flex dance movement in East New York. Flex reinvents movements from familiar dance styles such as popping, locking, and moonwalking by incorporating humorous flourishes as well as choreography that mimics real-life struggles on the streets of Brooklyn. Over a season of Battlefest, the dance style’s central competition, Flex is Kings showcases the artistry of a burgeoning movement and the DIY performers who have created a thriving community in a neighborhood of high crime and limited opportunities. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Schoo and Nichols as well as the subjects of the film.
Among the New York premieres in New Voices in Black Cinema is Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie’s César-nominated animated film Aya of Yop City (2012—Mar 29), “a vividly drawn…intriguing snapshot of West African life in the 1970s, with a fanciful vintage soundtrack” (Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter), which was adapted from Abouet’s popular graphic novel series. Also screening in their New York premieres are James Richards’ The Bicycle (2013—Mar 29), about a young girl’s journey to find her stolen bicycle; and Tommy Oliver’s semi-autobiographical debut feature 1982 (2013—Mar 29), an emotional drama about a family torn apart by drug addiction starring Hill Harper (CSI: NY), Wayne Brady, and Ruby Dee. This official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival will be followed by a Q&A with Oliver and Harper. Making its world premiere in the festival is Darious J. Britt’s Unsound (2013—Mar 28), in which a young filmmaker resorts to extreme measures to help his mother through her mental illness.
This year’s documentary selections include Christine Turner’s Homegoings (2013—Mar 28), an “exquisitely tender documentary about a Harlem funeral director” (Hank Stuever, The Washington Post); Jason Osder’s Let the Fire Burn (2013—Mar 30), which follows the 1985 stand-off between radical black liberation group MOVE and the Philadelphia government, and won the Best Documentary Director award at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival; Tamarat Makonnen’s comedic look at romance in African-American culture, In Search of the Black Knight (2013—Mar 29); and Maia Wechsler’s Melvin & Jean: An American Story (2012—Mar 28) in which two Americans look back at the lifelong consequences of a crime they committed 40 years earlier.
1982 – 2013, Tommy Oliver, USA – NY Premiere!
With Hill Harper, Sharon Leal, Wayne Brady, Troi Zee, La La Anthony, and Ruby Dee. In this family drama that takes place in the early days of crack, Philadelphia father Tim Brown struggles to protect his daughter from the reality of her mother’s drug addiction. Hill Harper, who portrays Tim as streetwise man just wanting to explode from his rage and fear but tempering himself in order to save his family, turns in another brilliantly nuanced and powerful performance. This emotional debut feature film director Tommy Oliver highlights his ability to coax great acting from unexpected casting, including Sharon Leal’s chilling turninto addiction and Wayne Brady’s unrecognizable local gangster role – performances to be seen in a familiar yet totally compelling story.
-Q&A w/ Tommy Oliver
AN AMERICAN IN HOLLYWOOD – 2013, Sai Varadan, USA, 89 min.
With J.D. Williams, Hassan Johnson, Anil Rahman, Richard Carroll Jr., Silvestre Rasuk, Azure-De, and Stephen Hill. New York-born writer/director Josiah leads childhood friends Dorian and Angelo, both aspiring actors, struggling assistant director Paul, and aspiring stand-up comedian Trilok, to Los Angeles to pursue their Hollywood dreams. But through Joshiah’s relationship with budding actress Ayoka, and their shared trials of cracking Hollywood’s glass ceiling, the team soon realizes the system they are up against and the price of being ‘heroes’ in their ‘new’ world.
AYA DE YOPOUGON (Aya of Yop City) – 2012, Marguerite Abouet, France – NY Premiere!
With the voices of Aïssa Maïga, Eriq Ebouaney, Tella Kpomahou, Tatiana Rojo. Straight from the popular graphic novel series comes the animated version of ‘Aya of Yop City!’ Based on author/director Marguerite Abouet’s life in late-1970’s post-colonial Cote d’Ivoire, the story takes place in Yopougon, a working-class neighborhood of Abidjan renamed Yop City – to sound like an American movie! This is home to Aya and her two friends, Adjoua and Bintou. They’re 19-years-old, a time in your life when everything seems possible. But while Aya would like to become a doctor one day, her friends are more into nightclubbing at the local “maquis” and hunting for a husband. Around this dynamic trio, we cross characters with diverse destinies. A true chorale comedy, Aya of Yop City is a chronicle of an unexpected Africa, modern and urban.
THE BICYCLE – 2013, James Richards, USA, 72 min. – NY Premiere!
With Cinque Northern, Stormi G. Smith, Michelle Wilson, and Rob Morgan. Bobbi cannot stand Teddy. Teddy isn’t exactly thrilled with Bobbi. Now that’s all right on the playground, but Teddy is 36 and Bobbi is 10. And they live in the same house. And Teddy is going to marry Bobbi’s mother Cheryl in a few months. When Bobbi is jumped and her bicycle is stolen, Teddy realizes that finding the bully and getting back the bicycle is the perfect opportunity to repair his relationship with Bobbi and save his fiancée’s hope of them becoming a family. But surprisingly, their journey through the many worlds that make up their community will connect them in a way neither could imagine. Taking place in the working/middle-class enclaves of Queens, NYC, The Bicycle shows a toorare and hopeful reflection of the African-American experience.
HOMEGOINGS – 2013, Christine Turner, USA, 56 min.
Through the eyes of funeral director Isaiah Owens, the beauty and grace of African-American funerals are brought to life. Filmed at Owens funeral home in New York City’s historic Harlem neighborhood, Homegoings takes an up-close look at the rarely seen world of undertaking in the Black community, where funeral rites draw on a rich palette of tradition, history, and celebration. Combining cinema verite with intimate interviews and archival photographs, the film paints and unexpectedly uplifting portrait of the dearly departed, their grieving families, and a man who sends our loved ones “home”.
-Q&A w/ Christine Turner
FLEX IS KINGS – 2013, Deidre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichols, USA, Brooklyn Premiere!
Journey to the edge of Brooklyn and of street performance itself in this sparkling portrait of the freeing power of art. Reem is the savvy promoter, Flizzo the undefeated local legend, Jay Donn the innovator with the talent to carry him far away from home. Uniting them is a competitive dance form of dramatic contortions, simulated violence, flowing footsteps and the occasional humorous touch. Welcome to the world of Flex.This inspiring documentary explores the hopes and realities of this under-acknowledged and totally unfunded group of Do-It-Yourself urban artists who use their dance skills and savvy to transform themselves to greater heights.
-Q&A w/ Deidre Schoo and Michael Beach Nicols
THE GIRL IS IN TROUBLE – 2012, Julius Onah, USA, 95 min.
With Columbus Short, Alicja Bachleda, Wilmer Valderrama and Jesse Spencer. In this thriller from Executive Producer Spike Lee, an unsuspecting Lower East Side bartender becomes entangled in a dark New York City murder mystery involving a desperate woman, a missing drug dealer, and the scion of New York’s most powerful investment firm. Director Julius Onah, recently selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, has crafted a debut that highlights the history, diversity and dangers of the Lower East Side and scultps them into an atypical film noir narrative.
-Q&A w/ Julius Onah
IN SEARCH OF THE BLACK KNIGHT – 2013, Tamarat Makonnen, USA, 73 min.
Combining professional advice, street interviews and sketch comedy, In Search of the Black Knight takes a humorous look at the current state of African American romantic relationships. Follow film director Tamarat Makonnen as he travels across the country in an attempt to expose the truth and absuridity behind this sensitive topic in this funny and thought-provoking film that will have you rethinking what you assumed about the opposite sex!
-Q&A w/ Tamarat Makonnen
LET THE FIRE BURN -2013, Jason Osder, USA, 95 min.
A found-footage film that unfurls with the tension of a great thriller, this award-winning documentary chronicles a harrowing day in 1985, on which a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and controversial radical urban group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied rowhouse. TV cameras captured the conflagration that quickly escalated-and resulted in the tragic deaths of eleven people (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes. First-time filmmaker Osder brings to life one of the most tumultuous and largely forgotten clashes between government and citizens in modern American history.
-Q&A w/ Jason Osder.
MELVIN & JEAN – 2012, Maia Weschler, USA/France, 60 min.
When Melvin and Jean McNair hijacked a plane from Detroit to Algeria in 1972 to join the International Section of the Black Panthers, they called it an act of political resistance to racism and the war in Vietnam War. In reality, the hijacking was an act of desperation committed by two young people who saw no other way to escape what they felt was the constant state of racial oppression in the United States.For the past 35 years, the McNairs have lived as model citizens in France, where they served prison time for the hijacking. Now, they want the freedom to return home without spending the rest of their lives behind bars.Melvin & Jean: An American Story follows the McNairs from revolt and exile to renewal and reconciliation. It challenges viewers to consider whether a lifetime of good can make up for a criminal act. Forty years after the hijacking, Melvin and Jean are still coming to terms with their crime and it’s lifelong consequences.
-Q&A w/ Maia Weschler
SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES – 2013, Nicole Gomez Fisher, USA, 95 min.
With Gina Rodriguez, Ana Ortiz, Priscilla Lopez, Tibor Feldman, Steven Strait. In this coming-of-age zany Latino-Jewish family comedy Alexis Fish (played by Filly Brownstar Gina Rodriguez), flat broke and broken-hearted after the death of her philandering husband, is struggling to survive on her own. When she begrudgingly returns home to Brooklyn for a distant aunt’s funeral, Alexis winds up on a journey of self-discovery and newromance, despite the antics of her well-intentioned but overbearing mother. With its fair share of “ay dios mio” and “oy vey” moments, Sleeping With the Fishes comes to life with colorful characters and one-liners that can only be found in a Latino Jewish home in Brooklyn.
UNSOUND – 2013, Darious J. Britt, USA, 93 min. – World Premiere!
With To-ree-nee Wolf, Darious J. Britt, RD Mower. An ambitious, young filmmaker is in the middle of creating his ultimate career-launching Volkswagen documentary when he receives the call he’s been dreading: his mother has succumbed to yet another episode of psychosis. Now, he must resort to extreme measures to save her from herself and reclaim his life. Shining a light on the struggles of dealing with a family member with mental illness, Unsound is an introspective and heartbreaking debut from writer/director/actor Darious Britt.
Tickets can be purchased here
