BlackStar Film Festival celebrates seven years

Hollywood has been slow-moving in its efforts to be more inclusive of filmmakers of color. Although significant strides have been made recently with critically acclaimed films like Moonlight and Black Panther, it's not enough.

That’s why the BlackStar Film Festival plays an important role in Philadelphia’s cinematic landscape. For seven years now, it has provided a space for local and national filmmakers to tell stories and spotlight issues significant to them.

Literature, incarceration, and groundbreaking TV

This year’s lineup includes a selection of nearly 100 short and feature films that truly celebrates the depth and diversity of storytelling by filmmakers of color, including Mr. Soul!, a feature documentary about Ellis Haizlip, producer and host of the public-television show SOUL!.

Roni Nicole Henderson’s bridge/refrain (in an August 4 screening of several shorts) is an experimental 10-minute film about a young woman traveling to the land of her ancestors. Menelek Patrice Lumumba’s feature 1 Angry Black Man tells the story of a college senior drawing inspiration from favorite writers to navigate his emotional reality.

Director Keith McQuirter’s feature documentary Milwaukee 53206 chronicles the lives of those affected by incarceration in America's most incarcerated ZIP code. The film unfolds through the eyes of Beverly Walker, whose husband has been incarcerated for more than 15 years.

Walker became the focus of the film because of her strength, resilience, and her unwavering support of her husband. “The world is on her shoulders.” McQuirter said. “She is taking care of her elderly parents, she is caring for her young children and grandchildren. I think people relate to her because they feel her burdens. She tells a different story of mass incarceration that people don’t normally hear.”

‘Feeling of Being Watched’

In the past three years, BlackStar has purposefully widened its film selection to include not only black voices but the voices of other people of color, to show a “strong link between the marginalized communities across the globe — and their need for diverse and authentic representation,” says BlackStar founder and artistic director Maori Karmael Holmes.

An exciting example of this evolution will be the premiere of Arab-American journalist Assia Boundaoui’s feature documentary The Feeling of Being Watched, which follows Boundaoui and her Chicago family as she investigates one of the largest FBI terrorism probes conducted before 9/11 and its enduring impact on the community.

In the process of making the film, Boundaoui came out from behind the camera, risking her privacy and the privacy of her family as she shared in the spring at the Tribeca Film Festival. She realized that if she was asking those in her community to take risks in speaking publicly, she needed to do the same.

Boundaoui will be on a panel (one of several director Q&As) to discuss the film and issues of surveillance in communities of color along with fellow filmmakers Lyric Cabral and El Sawyer on Saturday, August 4, at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA).

Other offerings

Johnny Brenda’s in Fishtown hosts an opening-night dance-party reception on August 2 at 8pm (free with RSVP, space allowing). There will also be two youth programs on August 4 at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery: one session featuring films for ages 11 to 18 and another for ages 19 to 22. The festival will also touch on Black Panther with Beyond Wakanda: The Resurgence of the Contemporary Black Reality & Future, a discussion panel of filmmakers and visual artists on Thursday, August 2, at 11am at ICA.

The 2018 BlackStar Film Festival runs Thursday, August 2, through Sunday, August 5, at various Philadelphia venues. For more info, tickets (including festival passes), and the full lineup, visit online.

Above: A scene from Assia Boundaoui's The Feeling of Being Watched. (Image courtesy of BlackStar Film Festival.)