This year’s San Diego Black Film Festival arrives amidst public outcry over another year of very white Academy Award nominations. But the festival highlights the diversity of black filmmaking.
The San Diego Black Film Festival, running Jan. 27-31, provides a showcase of more than 100 features, shorts and documentaries by black filmmakers from here and abroad. To emphasize the diversity within the black filmmaking community, closing day is devoted to films that shine a spotlight on the African diaspora.
"They are foreign films from the African diaspora," festival director Karen Willis said. "What that means is that these are films in various countries where there’s a community of black people. This year we even have films from Italy, we have films from Nigeria on closing day, we have a couple of films from Brazil."
The films range from Nigerian revenge thriller "Oloibiri" to Brazilian music documentary "O Samba" to the Italian racial drama "Aslem."
While feature films and documentaries draw the most attention at a festival, Willis pointed out that the shorts are powerful works worth seeking out.
The Thursday night feature film "The Prodigal Song" will be proceeded by the documentary short "This Little Light of Mine (Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer)," which looks to the civil rights impact made by Fannie Lou Hamer.
Willis said she was also impressed by Moon Molson's "The Bravest, The Boldest" in which Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris plays Sayeeda Porter, the mother of a young man serving overseas. One day some men from the military knock on her door.
"She knows what’s going on and she does everything she can to try not to open the door to hear the news," Willis said. "She sneaks out the back door. She goes into the laundry room to do laundry. It’s just a wonderful story."
The festival will also host two events open and free to the public (requiring advance registration): a pre-opening reception Wednesday night and a screening of the Oscar-nominated "Straight Outta Compton" on Saturday.
The festival runs through Sunday. Once again it opens our eyes to the astounding range of films chronicling the black experience.
