Black Film Festival: Black Film Festival 2023

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02Ie8wKKRg
Synopsis: 12 Years a Slave is a 2013 biographical period-drama film and an adaptation of the 1853 slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free African-American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., by two con men in 1841 and sold into slavery. Directed by Steve McQueen, the film received the Academy Award for Best Picture, among other accolades.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/sohT0HTgP84
Synopsis: At an all-black army camp, civilian parachute maker and "hot bundle" Carmen Jones is desired by many of the men. Naturally, she wants Joe, who's engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War. Going after him, she succeeds only in getting him into the stockade. While she awaits his release, trouble approaches for both of them. Songs from the Bizet opera with modernized lyrics.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFZMrd8fElQ
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple is an epic tale spanning 40 years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing "Mister" Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa. The critically acclaimed 1985 adaptation was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVAD4fYRcvA
Synopsis: Do the Right Thing is a 1989 American comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, and Samuel L. Jackson, and is the feature film debut of Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. The story explores a Brooklyn neighborhood's simmering racial tension, which culminates in tragedy and violence on a hot summer day.

Trailer : https://youtu.be/3MM8OkVT0hw
Synopsis : Starr Carter navigates the perilous waters between her poor, black neighborhood and her prestigious, mainly white private school. This all changes when she finds herself in the middle of racial activism after her best friend is shot by police officers, and she's forced to make a decision. Allow the media to skewer her friend to protect the status quo, or stand up and tell the truth in memory of Khalil?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4m3t3G3Zqc
Synopsis: If Beale Street Could Talk is a 2018 American romantic drama film written and directed by Barry Jenkins and based on James Baldwin's 1974 novel of the same name. The film follows a young woman who, with her family's support, seeks to clear the name of her wrongly charged lover and prove his innocence before the birth of their child. Nominated for and awarded numerous accolades, when film was chosen by both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute as one of the Top 10 Films of 2018.

Synposis: Nat Turner’s slave rebellion is a watershed event in America’s long and troubled history of slavery and racial conflict. This program deftly weaves academic commentary with dramatizations to examine that violent confrontation and the multiple, conflicting ways its story has been told. The earliest source of Turner imagery, The Confessions of Nat Turner, was based on jail cell interviews by a white lawyer and was the first to raise the question that continued to be asked for the next two centuries: Was Nat Turner a brilliant religious leader or a deluded fanatic leading slaves to their doom? With Henry Louis Gates Jr., Vincent Harding, Alvin Poussaint, Ossie Davis, and others. Some content may be objectionable. (60 minutes)

Trailer: https://youtu.be/uVN4aVYA2eA
Synopsis: STEP documents the senior year of a girls' high-school step dance team against the background of inner-city Baltimore. As each one tries to become the first in their families to attend college, the girls strive to make their dancing a success against the backdrop of social unrest in the troubled city.

Synopsis: Dancing great Bill 'Williamson' sees his face on the cover of Theatre World magazine and reminisces: just back from World War I, he meets lovely singer Selina Rogers at a soldiers' ball and promises to come back to her when he "gets to be somebody." Years go by, and Bill and Selina's rising careers intersect only briefly, since Selina is unwilling to "settle down." Will she ever change her mind? Concludes with a big all-star show hosted by Cab Calloway.