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By Indie Means Necessary

The BlackStar Film Festival is an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and of global communities of color, showcasing films by Black, Brown and Indigenous people from around the world.

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@BlackStarFest - 14 hours

#BSFF20 is featured in @harpersbazaarus's "Culture Lover’s August Guide." Check it out: https://t.co/WnnEJjeWYg… https://t.co/yaGYjcr9wz

@BlackStarFest - 14 hours

RT @DOCNYCfest: RSVP now for the next Friday Fix! Featuring: 🌟 @BlackStarFest director Maori Holmes Karmael 🌟 Eli Despres, @elysesteinberg…

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BlackStar is featured in "The Culture Lover's Augu BlackStar is featured in "The Culture Lover's August Guide" by @harpersbazaarus! Check out the list at the link in bio and get your $5 day passes now at blackstarfest.org/tickets. 🎟⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ 🖼 Second photo is a still from @juneteenthmovie, which will screen as part of #BSFF20 on August 23. #byindiemeansnecessary #BlackAugust
#TBT A clip from our 2014 trailer for BlackStar Fi #TBT A clip from our 2014 trailer for BlackStar Film Festival! Starring Melanie Cotton, filmed on location in North Philadelphia, and feat. our old logo 🥊 ★★★ #byindiemeansnecessary⁠ ⁠ Get your pass for this year's festival: blackstarfest.org (or via the link in bio)⁠ ⁠ #BSFF20 #throwbackthursday⁠ ⁠
@andreapippins (BlackStar Film Festival's designer @andreapippins (BlackStar Film Festival's designer from 2013 to 2019!) has created this year's official USPS Kwanzaa stamp. Congrats to Andrea! 👏🏿👏🏾👏🏽⁠ ⁠ Read the full announcement via the link in our bio.
On the second night of this year's BlackStar Film On the second night of this year's BlackStar Film Festival, we'll be presenting the extraordinary @throughthenightdoc, directed by @djlaylo_. ⁠ ⁠ "To make ends meet, Americans are working longer hours across multiple jobs. Through the Night is a verité documentary that explores the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider – whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center."⁠ ⁠ THROUGH THE NIGHT is nominated for Best Feature Documentary at #BSFF20. Get your Aug 21 Day Pass today! (Link in bio)
There are so many amazing panels and conversations There are so many amazing panels and conversations happening throughout this year's BlackStar Film Festival — all streaming live from our YouTube and Facebook pages! One highlight is our August 20th panel, "Documentary at the End of the World," presented by @nextdocfilm. ⁠ ⁠ "This dialogue crystalizes the present transformative moment and features the dynamic perspectives and voices of an all femme-under-30 panel made up of fellows from the NeXt Doc Collective. In this panel, participants will discuss what it means to be a young documentary filmmaker of color right now, their praxis, and visions for a bold, new, radically inclusive, documentary landscape. Nothing about us, without us, is for us!"⁠ ⁠ Featuring: ⁠ Darian Henry (@b.k.p.l.m)⁠ Brit Hensel (@brit_hensel)⁠ Lan Nguyen⁠ Courtney Staton (@symonesees)⁠ cai thomas (@aspire4gr8ness)⁠ ⁠ Check out the full #BSFF20 schedule, including all the rest of our panels, at the link in bio!⁠ ⁠ #byindiemeansnecessary
We're thrilled to be screening Ekwa Msangi's FAREW We're thrilled to be screening Ekwa Msangi's FAREWELL AMOR at this year's BlackStar Film Festival!⁠ ⁠ Reunited after 17 years apart, Walter, an Angolan immigrant, is joined in the U.S. by his wife and teen daughter. Now absolute strangers sharing a one-bedroom apartment, they discover a shared love of dance may help them overcome the emotional distance between them. ⁠ ⁠ Don't miss your chance to see this beautiful film! Get your Festival Pass or an August 26 Day Pass (for just $5) at the link in bio.⁠ ⁠ #BSFF20 #byindiemeansnecessary ⁠
Have you explored the amazing 2020 BlackStar Film Have you explored the amazing 2020 BlackStar Film Festival schedule yet!? Here's one highlight: The screenings begin on August 20th with the shorts program "Gravitaxis," a collection of four films from around the world, exploring the metaphysics of physical dislocation. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ AFTER MIGRATION: CALABRIA ⁠⠀ Dir. Walé Oyéjidé & Jake Saner - Italy⁠⠀ A triumphant portrait of a boy who left his home in The Gambia at the age of 15, and a Nigerian single-mother who birthed her child in a refugee camp, as they transcend their difficult histories while integrating into a quiet region of southern Italy.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ GULF ⁠⠀ Dir. Walter Mzengi - South Africa⁠⠀ Facing a dire situation, a woman flees her badly governed homelands; heading north with the desperate dream of finding a better life. Although she later discovers that to be fully accepted into the community, means losing a part of herself.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ HARANA ⁠⠀ Dir. Marie Jamora - United States, Philippines⁠⠀ Maya is a cover band singer in a Las Vegas casino-hotel lounge trying to connect with her daughter who is growing up in the Philippines without her. Wrestling between her passion for songwriting and becoming a pop-culture photocopy for an un-listening audience, she realizes that music – the one thing that keeps them distant – can also bring them closer together.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ROSA ⁠⠀ Dir. Suha Araj - United States⁠⠀ While working at her aunt’s flower shop, Rosa takes her job underground when she begins a side business of shipping undocumented bodies to their home countries for burial.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ***⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Watch all of these amazing films and more by grabbing a day or full festival pass at the link in our bio! And explore the full schedule at blackstarfest.org/schedule 🗓⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #BSFF20 #byindiemeansnecessary
Heard the news? We announced our full line-up last Heard the news? We announced our full line-up last week and passes are now on sale for the 2020 BlackStar Film Festival! ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Join us online from Aug 20 to 26 to catch over 80 films, nearly a dozen live panels, and much more! Link to schedule in bio (blackstarfest.org/schedule). ⁠⠀ #BSFF20 #byindiemeansnecessary ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Find links to the various articles shown here at blackstarfest.org/press-room⁠⠀ And ICYMI, watch the trailer on our IGTV. 📺
"Black film is still too often assessed for its di "Black film is still too often assessed for its didactic value, with artistic and intellectual contributions deemed secondary. We need to emphasize the works of Zeinabu Irene Davis, Yvonne Welbon, Garrett Bradley, Marlon Riggs, Dee Rees, Cheryl Dunye and other filmmakers who tap into themes on Black peoples’ experiences as individuals, and how those experiences are shaped by race, sexuality, class and countless other social realities. These names, among so many others, need to be at the center of a discussion about the potential of film to connect audiences with the intimate contours of Black life." - @racquelgates (#BSFF19 Jury), in @nytimes ⁠⠀ Read the full story at the link in our bio. And buy your passes now for #BSFF20, during which you can see the world premiere of the Yvonne Welbon-produced @unapologeticdoc and dozens of other films which, as Gates writes, "decenter whiteness or ignore it altogether." 👉🏾 blackstarfest.org/tickets — 📷 First photo includes partial still of Serena Scott in Kathleen Collins’ LOSING GROUND (1982)

2019 Festival Re-cap

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