NYC PREMIERE Wilma Mankiller rose from poverty to become the first female chief of the Cherokee nation. After a forced relocation from her native Oklahoma at 10, Wilma developed her activist chops in turbulent 1960s San Francisco, fighting for land rights during the Alcatraz Occupation. Back with her people, she organized around issues of social and […]
WORLD PREMIERE Director Sam Pollard constructs a portrait of charismatic trailblazer Maynard Jackson, who became Atlanta’s first black mayor in 1973. The son of pastors raised in the segregated South, Jackson entered college at 14 and took office at 35. During his three-term tenure, he led the city through the traumatic Atlanta child murders and […]
WORLD PREMIERE Hari Kondabolu has had a nemesis for nearly his entire life, someone who has plagued the stand-up comedian since he was a child, subjecting him to ridicule and racist comments: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, better known as the Indian owner of the Kwik-E-Mart on The Simpsons. For Hari, Apu represents an outdated and offensive South […]
NYC PREMIERE A star of stage and screen and member of the legendary Rat Pack, Sammy Davis, Jr. broke racial barriers, but paid a heavy price for it. Defying societal norms concerning interracial romance, religion and political affiliation, Davis courted controversy many times, but always with grace and honesty. Filmmaker Sam Pollard explores all the […]
NYC PREMIERE Chicago’s Westside has its share of problems, but it’s also home to Orr Academy. There, young men like Marquise and Tyquone find refuge from the sometimes dangerous realities of the street on the school’s basketball team, under the watchful eye of their mentor and coach, Lou. After team MVP Marquise runs afoul of the […]
NYC PREMIERE Lorraine Hansberry, best known for A Raisin in the Sun, was a black writer, communist, feminist, lesbian and outspoken trailblazer at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. She led an active life, befriending James Baldwin, inspiring Nina Simone, breaking barriers from Broadway to Hollywood, being monitored by the FBI and seeking love […]
For her feature debut, a rousing film about young women striving for success, Tony Award-winning producer Amanda Lipitz received a Sundance Film Festival special jury award. Step focuses on three high-school seniors in the inaugural class of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, whose mandate is to send every student to college. Taking inspiration […]
WORLD PREMIERE In Bushwick, where rapid gentrification is pushing out Latino families, a unique alternative after-school program serves as a haven for the community. Led by a former high school teacher disillusioned with mainstream education’s focus on testing, Still Waters in a Storm serves 40 children, ages 5-15, free of charge, and encourages creativity and […]
Twenty-five years ago, William Ford, an unarmed young black man, was killed after an argument with a white mechanic escalated. William was painted as the aggressor while his killer was set free, unpunished. Director Yance Ford’s carefully composed and starkly personal film simmers with a quiet anger as it dissects the long-lasting impact of his […]
Claiming a space for representations of lesbian and gay African Americans, and providing an unprecedented opportunity for black families to address issues of sexuality, identity and personal history, Harris’s bold, impressionistic film focuses on three sets of queer siblings, including the director and his brother, artist Lyle Ashton Harris. Accompanied by a Digital Diaspora Family […]