The New Orleans Film Festival came
to a close this week with over 33,000 attendees turning out for two weeks of
screenings, panel discussions and special events. This year, the festival
launched an initiative funded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts &
Sciences to spotlight black film, with filmmakers flying in from across the
country to screen their work, speak at festival events, and participate in a
mentorship program bringing local filmmakers together with industry leaders.
Five up-and-coming New Orleans filmmakers –
Brian Nelson, Jonathan Jackson, Kiel Adrian Scott, Lizzie Ford-Madrid, and CJ
Hunt – were chosen to participate in the Emerging Voices mentorship program,
where they received one-on-one meetings with established filmmakers like documentary
director Dawn Porter ("Gideon’s Army") and producer Effie Brown
("Dear White People").
National Black Programming Consortium’s
Interim Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz and Digital Director Christian
Ugbode also attended to give an in-depth introduction to #NBPC360, Black Public Media’s
new program to fund serial content centered on the black experience. The program
will award grants between $50,000 and $150,000 to produce new content over the
next year. NPBC will also hold webinars
and digital office hours in the next few months to help guide producers and
content creators through the development and application process.
On Saturday, the festival hosted a discussion
on black film featuring filmmakers Effie Brown ("Dear White People"), Thomas Allen Harris
("Through A Lens Darkly"), Garrett Bradley ("Below Dreams")
and Malik Vitthal ("Imperial Dreams"), moderated by yours truly.
Speaking to a crowd of mostly aspiring filmmakers, the panelists emphasized the
need to connect directly with audiences through grassroots community
engagement, transmedia, and even crowdfunding.
Harris, whose latest film started with the
idea for a photography book, explained how he grew the project into a personal
essay film and traveling roadshow called Digital Diaspora Family Reunion, which
has amassed over 4,000 photographs that had never been seen before on
film.
"I feel like my films are influenced by
my relationship to the Diaspora – Ousmane Sembene, Pier Paolo Pasolini – and
artists who’ve worked within the filmmaking space," said Harris. "For
me this is a personal film, it’s a transmedia film, but it’s also a historical
document."
Harris credits the roadshow with helping to
boost theatrical sales at Film Forum, where the run of the documentary was
extended three times.
"When you’re making a movie you need to have
a plan," added Brown. "Everybody is an artist at heart but you’ve got
to realize, are you making this movie for you and your mother, or for whom?
Everybody has an audience and a niche. When you’re making your movie, think of
how you want to get it out into the world because we all want to share our
stories."
The festival wound down with an awards brunch
Sunday where Bradley received both the Special Jury Award and Cinematography
Award for Best Louisiana Feature for "Below Dreams." Another
filmmaker of interest to this site, Frances Bodomo, was the Jury winner for
Best Narrative short for her sci fi short "Afronauts."
Find the full
list of festival winners here.