BlackStar Film Festival

On Friday's #BlackStarLive premiere, Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham stopped by to chat about their amazing anthology #BlackFutures and the power of personal archives...among other things Watch the rest of the interview and the full episode here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=3638080906312161&ref=watch_permalink

The 10th Annual BlackStar Film Festival will take place this year from August 4 to 8, and submissions are currently open! The early bird deadline is tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10. Submit today! blackstarfest.org/submissions/ #BSFF21 #BlackStar10

The show is about to begin! #BlackStarLive #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackFuturesMonth

BlackStar Live! is back! @Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew talk BLACK FUTURES, plus musical guest Reef The Lost Cauze, and a short film from Rebeca Huntt. #BlackHistoryMonth

#BlackStarLive is back tonight at 9 ET, live on Facebook! Who's watching with us? #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackFuturesMonth

TONIGHT! Find out if Yaba learns how to double dutch...plus so much more, on the premiere of the new season of #BlackStarLive! LIVE right here on Facebook at 9 ET.

We need more space for work by folks of color to be lovingly critiqued by other folks of color. [BlackStar] is one way in terms of people being able to see work and participate in panels and networking. Seen is documenting that work and creating an archive and providing a platform for examination and historizing. - Maori Karmael Holmes, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, speaking to Brandon T. Harden about the launch of #SeenJournal

"Growing up in New York City has shaped Limbal: 'I’m such a New Yorker. I was my mother’s right hand because my mother doesn’t speak English; from the age of six, I’ve been translating for her.' As a young person, her activism deeply connected her to the city and its many communities. Limbal says of growing up in New York City: 'It was so intersectional, pan-POCCambodian folks in the Bronx, Dominicans in Bushwick, DRUM, CAAAV, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Puerto Rican gras...sroots groups. All these political spaces instilled in me the idea that my freedom is bound up in your freedom. I was pan-Africanist before I understood what that word meant.'" Elizabeth Mendez Berry's profile of Through the Night director Loira Limbal, from the first issue of #SeenJournal, is now up online! Read it and grab your print copy of the journal, also out now. cc DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving, Caaav: Organizing Asian Communities, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

Our own Maori Karmael Holmes will be in conversation with filmmaker Mary Baxter tomorrow, following screenings of Mary's works "The Fall of America" and "Ain't I a Woman" as part of a #RenderingJustice program presented with Mural Arts Philadelphia, African American Museum in Philadelphia, and Art for Justice Fund. Register below!

Congrats to all the BlackStar alum including Bayeté Ross-Smith, Adam Khalil, Suha Araj, and Terence Nance who were recognized by Creative Capital today!

A message from the #M4BL team.

Join us TODAY at 4 pm ET on BlackStar's IG LIVE for another #SeenJournal Contributor Conversation featuring writers Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Niela Orr! Both Niela and Elizabeth spoke with filmmakers (Radha Blank and Loira Limbal, respectively) for their contributions to Seen Issue 001 which is out now! You can also now read the entirety of Niela's interview on the site: seen.blackstarfest.org/DefyingTheNote All conversations in this series will also be accessible afterwards via our website, on this page: blackstarfest.org/seen-contributor-conversations/

"Mr. Silva said that while film and television executives are more willing than they used to be to budget for accent coaching, change has been slow. Many professionals believe the profession will only reform itself when people of color are placed in charge of production and distribution." - The New York Times

Congrats to Keisha Rae Witherspoon on receiving the first Lynn Shelton Of a Certain Age Grant! The grant is awarded each year "to a U.S.-based woman or non-binary filmmaker, age 39 or older, who has yet to direct a narrative feature." Keisha's short film T world-premiered at BlackStar in 2019, where it won an audience award, and went on to screen at Sundance and win the Golden Bear for best short film at Berlinale. Learn more about Keisha and the grant via IndieWire!

Tune into DOC NYC now to catch an interview with our Maori Karmael Holmes, on the state of documentary in Philadelphia:

Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)'s African Diaspora Film Club moderated by Cornelius Moore meets once a month to discuss a specific film (viewed in advance). The next meeting, on November 8th, will focus on Louis Massiah's "W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices." Learn more and sign-up

Introducing: Talking Breakfast! Next week we’re releasing the first episode of our new web series Talking Breakfast. The series features musicians, writers, fil...mmakers, and other creatives who film themselves making breakfast and talking about how they start the day and get in the headspace to create! Our first episode, presented in collaboration with BlackStar Film Festival, features filmmaker and artist Rashid Zakat. Look out for the episode dropping next week! #TalkingBreakfast #PhiladelphiaContemporary Image description: Video of the Talking Breakfast teaser for our upcoming episode release. Video consists of a solid bright green background and animated white typography. The first round of typography in the video appears as Coming the type has a squiggly effect and there is a small black outline on each letter which also squiggles. The next set of type appears with Coming Soon and then right below in a chunkier and larger type Thursday October 29th. The frame then changes to a cream background, in the center there is an illustration of a light blue tote bag with orange straps, there is a baguette, avocado, and leafy greens peaking at the top. There is cursive typography written on the bag spelling Talking in orange. Below that type there is chunky white/cream block letter typography spelling Breakfast and then below in small orange type Mornings with artists. Everything in the frame slightly moves in an animated way, and when the video begins a small jingle plays throughout.

We're thrilled to share that, thanks to a grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, in 2022 BlackStar will be presenting #Swarm, the first solo exhibition of the work of Terence Nance! In partnership with PAFA The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, curated by Maori Karmael. pewcenterarts.org/2020grants

"Madeline Anderson is often credited as being the first Black woman to produce and direct a televised documentary film, the first Black woman to produce and direct a syndicated tv series, the first Black employee at New York-based public television station WNET, and one of the first black women to join the film editor’s union. The three films in this screening, made between 1960 and 1970, document Black people in their struggle for equality, becoming indispensable historical records and fundamental pieces of political documentary filmmaking in the process." Join Scribe Video Center on Friday for this amazing program!

Audrey's Story opens the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival tonight and "shines a compassionate light on the difficult path Audrey's family traveled to achieve that measure of justice."

VICE spotlights Adeyemi Michael, curator of a new Netflix UK collection called "Black British Stories" and a filmmaker whose work has previously screened at BlackStar (including ENTITLED, pictured here, which was at BSFF19).

As we mark our 40th anniversary during unprecedented times, CAAM is proud to present CAAMFest Forward, October 14-18, 2020, featuring over 50 films and events, ...including 2 drive-in experiences. We draw inspiration from one another through our stories. We feel the moment and the need to connect and act. We move forward. caamfest.com See more

We're hiring a Deputy Director! This is a leadership position working hand in glove with BlackStar's Artistic Director/CEO. Apply by Oct 23! Learn more here: blackstarfest.org/opportunities/

I’m hesitating when I’m speaking about power as it relates to me because I have this concern that it will come off like a dictator or something like that, King says, articulating the tightrope that so many women in leadership walk in their careers. A hint of smile begins to creep across her lips, and her eyes light up a little. There’s that part of me that always wants to be careful not to come off like that, but I am definitely a person that likes to be in control, she says. I guess I’m a walking contradiction. I think that’s just human nature. Soraya Nadia McDonald talks to Regina King for Glamour: