San Francisco Black Film Festival, June 17-19th
50 Cent and Brian A. Miller wrote the screenplay and Randall Emmett produced the film. Also among the local, national and international films to be screened at the San Francisco Black Film Festival is “Black, White and Blues,” written by Morgan Simpson and George Richards and starring Michael Clarke Duncan, Kiele Sanchez, Taryn Manning, Tom Skerrit and Melvin Van Peebles and also directed by Mario Van Peebles.
“We are thrilled to have these great films in our line up,” said Kali Ray, co-director of the San Francisco Black Film Festival. “There are so many positive subtexts to ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘Black, White and Blues’ being in the festival with their themes of overcoming challenges and redemption all on Father’s Day Weekend as we have a father-son film industry connection with Mario Van Peebles and Melvin Van Peebles,” added Ray, who took over the reigns of the San Francisco Black Film Festival after the unexpected and untimely demise of his mother and founder Ave Montague, who was called the unofficial mayor of the Fillmore.
“We’re looking forward to having as many of our stars as possible at the San Francisco Black Film Festival walking the red carpet,” said Randall Emmett, producer of “Things Fall Apart.”
The film festival also highlights local filmmaker Kevin Epps on opening night with his documentary “Straight Outta Hunter’s Point 2,” a follow up to his 2002 groundbreaking acclaimed documentary, “Straight Outta Hunter’s Point.” Epps revisits the neighborhood for a look at the current state of the community and the myriad of social and economic issues.
Among other local filmmakers in the festival is San Francisco native Jacquie Taliaferro, who recently returned from the Cannes International Film Festival promoting his film, “10-10 Gotta Win,” edited by Trey Houston, that takes a look at the San Francisco District 10 Race for supervisor and how it parallels similar themes of access to power, economic stability and education in other communities across the nation.
“It’s an honor for me to work with a great group of volunteers on a project that opens the way for additional tourism in San Francisco as we continue to build the brand,” added Ray. “We extend a special thanks to Randall Emmett and Morgan Simpson – ‘Black, White and Blues’ screenplay writer and star – for giving the OK for ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘Black, White and Blues’ to be screened in the San Francisco Black Film Festival.”
“The Trajectory of the Black Family Through Film!” was a pre-festival film series held at the Jazz Heritage Center in the Fillmore, and the thrust of that theme continues through the San Francisco Black Film Festival as Bay Area families involved in the film industry will be honored including the Lange family: director-producer Michael, actor-director Ted and writer Jerri Lange. Michael recently launched a play in the Bay Area and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, with new Artistic Director Steven Anthony Jones and new General Manager Shirley Howard-Johnson. Ted has recently been honored and their mother has lately been involved in the promotion of Black female writers, writing an article for the Oakland Post among other activities. Jerri Lange, a pioneer broadcaster and veteran journalist, authored the book, “Jerri, A Black Woman’s Life in the Media.”
Shabaka Henley and wife Paulina Sahagun of Latino descent will be on hand with son Miles as their joint project, “90404 Changing,” directed and written by Michael Barnard, is screened. It depicts the relationships between Blacks and Latinos as Santa Monica, Calif., experiences redevelopment.
The festival has a video and essay contest: “My Dad is My Hero.” The public is asked to send in their two-minute or less video, or 500 words or less essay, to honor their father or the father figure in their life either living or in memoriam. All ages are welcome to participate. Entries should be sent in no later than June 10 to the San Francisco Film Festival, P.O. Box 15490, San Francisco, CA 94115 or emailed to info@sfbff.org, attn: “My Dad is My Hero.” The entries will be judged by a panel of community leaders and the fathers of the winning entries will be honored on Sunday, June 19th. (more…)
Macon Film Festival: February 17th – 21st, Black White and Blues
Macon Film Festival, Black White and Blues
Black, White and Blues centers around Jefferson Bailey, a talented blues musician had a difficult upbringing. He was abandoned by his mother at birth and lost his father in a tragic accident. Bailey meanders through life, working menial jobs in Austin, Texas. After one of his many drunken nights, a man approaches Bailey with some interesting news—his grandfather died and he is to receive an inheritance. Bailey must travel to Alabama to accept his property. Augy has been hired to find and connect Bailey with his rightful belongings. Bailey drives Augy out the door, telling him he’s got the wrong guy, seemingly disavowing the good news. The next day, an encounter with Boyd, a local troublemaker to whom he owes money, sends Bailey on the run and right into Augy’s truck. As Bailey and Augy travel through the deepest parts of the South–Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, on to Alabama–the duo make good use of the rich musical history of the area, hitting every juke joint in sight, including the blues bar of Augy’s friend, Santa. Over the course of their trip, Bailey’s story unfolds, and we learn more about him, his family history and the blues music he has always felt connected to. Augy knows more about Bailey than he lets on and, with his help, Bailey manages to use the music he has in his soul to take control of his life and set off on a new path, one that puts his past to rest.
Black, White and Blues Co-Writer, Producer and star, Morgan Simpson, is confirmed as a Special Guest to the Macon Film Festival and will be on hand for Q&A after the screening.
Starring: Kiele Sanchez, Michael Clarke Duncan, Taryn Manning, Morgan Simpson, Luke Perry
Orlando Film Festival, Films Reviewed by Orlando Sentinel
Kiele Sanchez, Black, White & Blues
Programming a film festival can’t be easy, even in the best of times. And with the beating indie film has taken in the past five years, just getting filmmakers to either pay an entry fee and submit their movie or who will simply allow their movie to be shown, for free (they get paid nothing, typically) grows more and more difficult. Landing a cross section of movies that will appeal to a wide audiences is even tougher for start-up film festivals run by people not networked in with distributors, who have a history with a lot of different filmmakers or have garnered a little prestige.
Yes, the long-established Florida Film Festival makes it look easy. Veteran festival runner Nina Streich guarantees The Global Peace Film Festival will have lots of good movies. But even those festivals have stinkers.
Newer and smaller local fests — The Central Florida Film Festival, the OLA Fest and the Orlando Film Festival — by necessity are packed with movies that won’t ever see distribution, may not make it to DVD and by any measure are just filler.
This year’s Orlando Film Festival seems this year to be overwhelmingly filler. All these puppet movies? SEVERAL collections of short puppet movies? Twenty and 30 year old Muppet pictures? All these movies that have been in other area festivals?
I haven’t seen everything, not by a long shot. But I had to go through a LOT of movies this year to get to a handful worth plugging in print so that the festival will have decent awareness as it gets underway Nov. 3 (Nov. 3-7). Too many of these films (and I run into this every year with this festival and a couple of others) make you wonder, “If this is what got in, what did you turn down?” (more…)
Black, White and Blues plays Orlando Film Festival this Weekend
The latest movie from former and current Tampa residents Morgan Simpson, Jeff Balis and Charlie Poe is Black, White and Blues, a tale of rural redemption that’s showing Saturday at the Orlando Film Festival.
Apparently their earlier effort, Clear Lake, WI, that played at the 2009 Gasparilla festival turned out to be the calling card I predicted it would be. For their next production, the trio pulled in such Hollywood talents as Oscar nominee Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), Luke Perry (Beverly Hills 90210) and Tom Skerritt (the original MASH) for acting parts, and Mario Van Peebles (Panther, Posse) to direct.
Black, White and Blues stars Simpson as Jefferson Bailey, a down-and-out blues musician with a debt to rough necks chasing him out of town. He hitches a ride with a gentle giant named Augy (Duncan), tries reuniting with a ex-flame (Kiele Sanchez) and mends fences with his father (Skerritt). In addition to acting, Simpson co-wrote the screenplay and produces. Balis is another producer and Poe gets the executive producer credit.
Black, White and Blues is screening Saturday at 7:45 p.m. at Plaza Cinema Cafe, 155 S. Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando. The festival features nearly 100 features/documentaries/shorts, in addition to several special events including a closing night concert with Edwin McCain.
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Black, White and Blues: BOSTON FILM FESTIVAL 2010, Kiele Sanchez
Kiele Sanchez stars: Black, White and Blues
Jefferson Bailey (Morgan Simpson) has more or less reached the end of the line in Austin. He came out there to start a blues band, but right now, he’s behind on rent, freezes up when he goes on stage, and drinks until he blacks out. Plus, he’s not only borrowed some money from a local tough (Luke Perry), but he’s been sleeping with his wife Jackie (Taryn Manning). Even still, he’s not interested in going home when a man (Michael Clarke Duncan) shows up, saying his grandfather died six months ago and he has to collect his inheritance personally. At least, not until Jackie’s husband gets wise and decides to extract his pound of flesh – then traveling back to Huntsville, Alabama with this Augy fellow starts to sound real good.
Jefferson likes the blues, while Augy goes for country, and while that’s a bit amusing considering their respective skin colors, it’s not long before the pair are commenting on how, though the two styles of music have different sounds, they often amount to the same thing. The movie itself plays like the blues and country – a recitation of sorrows set to a simple beat, but with a wry humor and open heart that helps to drive sorrow away. Augy and Bailey have both had troubles with the bottle and some bad luck in love, but this is far from being a movie about sad, irrevocably broken people; it’s often funny, with the pair becoming good buddies fairly quickly.
Also, framing a movie around a road trip with blues at the center means that the filmmakers have a built-in safety valve against the film being boring. Running out of conversation for the two leads? Have them drop into a roadhouse with live entertainment, or find a church with a gospel choir, or meet a blind old blues-man and play music for a few minutes. You can get the music to mean something to the characters, and the filmmakers have put together a nice roster of musicians for the soundtrack. The incidental music is good, too, a real help in setting the mood. (more…)