Hollywood Black Film Festival

Black independent film was alive and kicking in Culver City this past February at the second annual Hollywood Black Film Festival. Festival director Tanya Kersey-Henley, along with head programmer Jackie Blaylock, brought together an exciting and well-received lineup of films.

The opening night feature Dancing in September, directed by Reggie Rock Bythewood (co-author of Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus), tells the story of a sitcom writer who falls in love with an executive during the network boycotts by a civil rights organization. Starring Isaiah Washington, Nicole Ari Parker and Vicellous Reon Shannon, the film explores the difficulties of maintaining one’s integrity in an industry controlled by the hunger for ratings.

Special presentations included a Kids Fest, short films from Showtime and the feature Masquerade, a BET/Arabesque Films production. A "Black Women in Film" sidebar featured such highlights as The Book of Ezekiel, by Latrice Dixon; When the Time Comes, by Tracie Dean Ponder; and Burst, by Aida Ghidey. This section proved that the next wave of influential filmmakers need not have a Y chromosome.

Audience Award—winner Marriage Prep, by Donohue Tuitt, was crowded beyond capacity and elicited the most laughter and buzz during the Festival. Rod Gailes’s short film Twin Cousins was clearly the winner among the multitude of short films. Beautifully shot, the film explores the relationship between two 10-year-old best friends who are separated one summer. The Fest’s international section included Elizabeth K. Jackson’s award-winning documentary Surviving Abyssinia, a hypnotic essay on one woman’s search for identity in Ethiopia.

A common theme throughout the Festival was mental illness, a topic rarely discussed in the black community. Love & Fate, by Kenneth Jones; the short film Details, by Eric Daniel; and Dancing in September all attempt to combat negative images of the mentally ill by exploring the prejudice still faced by many African Americans who struggle with manic depression.

With the inclusion of more international films and an extra day added to the Festival, the next HBFF promises to continue to bring black filmmakers and industry professionals together for an event that celebrates the future of black film. – Moira Griffin

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Hollywood Black Film Festival by Moira Griffin