SPOTLIGHT: ‘Black Sundance’ Celebrates 15 Years with Exciting Slate of Radical Cinema
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY CAMRYN ROYAL☆
Photo By Mochi Robinson
AT BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL, IMAGINATION IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD RADICAL CHANGE—In a darkened Wilma Theater, audience members were greeted by the warbled lilt of a child’s voice, calling in “Our Black, Brown and Indigenous ancestors who bent time and envisioned a freer, more tender world for us, one that we continue to reach for” as images of resistance and care flashed across the screen. The brief trailer played before each film screening, illuminating BlackStar’s 15th anniversary theme, “Cinema for Liberation.”
Founded by Maori Karmael Holmes in 2012, BlackStar Film Festival began with a modest yet revolutionary slate of 40 films highlighting artists of African descent. In the 15 years since, BlackStar evolved into a globally recognized film festival, prioritizing Black, Brown and Indigenous voices who exist outside of traditional genre conventions.
Alile Sharon Larkin by Daniel Jackson
“BlackStar Film Festival was a pulsating and critical meeting point for storytellers,” said Mbali Mashaba, founder and film curator of Reel to Reality Film Festival. “It’s a festival in which social justice is not a vague concept in the distance, but urgent to our society and future.”
From Aug. 6–9, guests gained access to 91 films from over 30 countries, with over 80 films premiering at BlackStar. The Daily Jawn kicked off each morning at 11 a.m. and featured an opening day talk with renowned LA Rebellion filmmaker Julie Dash. In addition, BlackStar hosted daily panels spotlighting industry professionals such as A Different World showrunner Felicia Pride and The New Yorker critic Doreen St. Felix. On closing day, LA Rebellion filmmaker Alile Sharon Larkin appeared for a Q&A on the retrospective screening of her film, A Different Image. It was there that Me Too founder Tarana Burke made a surprise appearance, engaging in a brief dialogue with Sharon Larkin on the anatomy of sexual violence.
Julie Dash, Rashid Zakat, Maori Karmael Holmes by Daniel Jackson
BlackStar boasted a robust roster of 14 short film collections, including the Reclamations Shorts, which explored themes of “taking back our bodies, our space.” The series featured the Philadelphia premiere of At the Stage When, from director Hao Zhou, which trails a young married couple, shaken by the confines of traditional marital expectations. Also included in the series was the East Coast premiere of Another Day Shall Come, from Palestinian director Aida Kaadan, who combined landscape vignettes with voice memos from anonymous Palestinians surviving in silence. Rounding out the evocative series was the North American premiere of Olinda’s Golden Arches, documenting the historic mayoral race of communist candidate Luciana Santos and the rise and fall of Olinda’s first-ever McDonald's.
“I left feeling inspired, recharged and hopeful,” said Teairrah Greene, BlackStar Screening Intern. “Having so many creative people gathered in one space is nurturing to the soul. BlackStar reminded me why I make films and how powerful it is to see ourselves creating, imagining and building the future of cinema.”
The 15th edition of the BlackStar Film Festival was a vibrant weekend celebrating Black, Brown and Indigenous achievements in film. The festival prophesies that the future of cinema is one buoyed by community care, liberatory education and compelling original stories.
