Now in its 18th year, the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series kicks off its latest installment this weekend at Long Island University – Brooklyn Campus.
With a steady focus on films produced, directed, written, and most often starring women of color, this year’s selections of feature films, documentaries, short films, and webseries are as strong and diverse as ever. Extra special this year is the awarding the first ever Reel Sisters Hattie McDaniel Award to comedienne Jessica Williams (The Daily Show) and veteran award-winning actress and vocalist Ebony Jo-Ann (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).
“Reel Sisters is one of the few outlets that film lovers have to experience intellectually stimulating and empowering films by women from around the world,” says co-founder Carolyn A. Butts. “We’re here to reclaim our stories and launch a national dialogue about issues affecting our community and families.”
The Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series was founded by African Voices magazine and Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Since 1997, the festival has been enriching New York City with over 500 films by women of African, Caribbean, Latino, Asian, Indian and Native American descent. Reel Sisters attracts more than 800 film lovers from across the nation and globe including California, Chicago, Florida to as far away as Britain. The festival screens 25+ films each year, provides scholarships to emerging women filmmakers, and offers other resources for women filmmakers.
The Festival not only showcases films, but also hosts panels and workshops as well. This year’s main panel lecture, “Good Love! (Re) presentations of Love and Sex in Black Women’s Cinema” focuses on notions of love and sex in film and television as it relates to Black women and women of color, with panelists Michele Stephenson (American Promise), Nefertiti Nguvu (In The Morning), and Yoruba Richen (The New Black, Promised Land) With the media’s lack of diverse human thoughts and feelings when it comes to love and sex, and old, stereotypical tropes of Sapphire, Jezebel and Mammy still present, this panel celebrates women of color filmmakers who are claiming spaces for us to solidly give and receive “good love!” Alexis Garrett Stodghill, an award-winning, multi-media journalist, will moderate the conversation taking place on Oct. 24, 2015 from 3:20pm-4:20.
For ticket information go to the Reel Sisters website. To download the full schedule (films do overlap) click HERE.
Film highlights from this year’s festival include:
LA BELLE VIE: THE GOOD LIFE
(2015 Best Director winner)
Sat., October 24 – 4:35pm
Directed by Rachelle Salnave
A look into filmmaker Rachelle Salnave’s journey to discover her Haitian roots by examining the complexities of the Haitian society but also chronicles her voyage to find hope in this nation on the brink of a new Haiti.
THE YOUTH
(2015 Best Screenplay winner)
[part of “Troubled Youth” short film series]
Sat., October 24 – 1pm
Director/Writer/Editor: Dehanza Rogers
Producer: Vanita Shastry
A recent college graduate is frustrated that his life is going nowhere until an old friend offers him the opportunity to make a difference.
FORGIVING CHRIS BROWN
[part of “Trifling” short film series]
Sat., October 24- 6pm
Director/Writer: Marquette Jones
A dark comedy short that follows the follies of “Rihanna,” Halle” and “Tina.” These stylish girlfriends hope to heal their battered hearts through the old-fashioned way – Revenge!
JIMMY GOES TO NOLLYWOOD
Sat., October 24 – 7pm
Directors: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Rachid Dhibou
Have you heard of Nollywood? Not known to many, Nollywood is one of the largest movie producers putting them ahead of Hollywood and just behind India’s Bollywood. The Haitian actor Jimmy Jean-Louis makes his directorial debut with this documentary, taking us on a journey that includes the African Movie Academy Awards, giving us insight into the heart of a burgeoning African cinema full of confidence.
THE REUNION
(part of “Violations” short film series)
Sunday, October 25 – 1pm
Director/Producer/Writer: Carmen Elly Wilkerson
Four teenage girls, the morning after a party, wake up to find the youngest of them is a victim of sexual assault. The friends debate what to do next…call the police, tell their parents or keep it a secret.
AMEN- THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF JESTER HAIRSTON
(2015 Best Documentary Award winner)
Sunday, October 25 – 1pm
Director/Writer: Lillian Benson
AMEN: The Life and Music of Jester Hairston, is the story of composer-arranger Jester Hairston who popularized and preserved the Spiritual, the source from which all of African-American music flows, from slave songs to hip-hop.
MARY LOU WILLIAMS: THE LADY WHO SWINGS THE BAND
Producer/Director: Carol Bash
Sunday, October 25 – 3:10pm
A stirring documentary about the life and music of Mary Lou Williams, jazz’s greatest unsung innovator of the 20th century. While many women were confined to the home, Mary Lou Williams forged a unique path as a pioneering pianist, composer and arranger.
Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band from Ace & Son MPC, LLC on Vimeo.
