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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 indigenous communities, showcasing films by black people from around the world.

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RT @cmonstah: “I don’t think you can say ‘African American art’ without saying ‘Thelma Golden.’ You can’t say ‘contemporary art’ without sa…

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RT @Nikyatu: Films made by African Women are not as widely known as films made by African Men (same as it is in the states). Excited I got…

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  • Ethiopian-Israeli filmmaker Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian‘s “Fig Tree,” had its official World Premiere at @tiff_net and won the EURIMAGES’ AUDENTIA AWARD. Set in Addis Ababa in 1989, the story revolves around Mina, a 16 year-old girl Jewish girl living with her grandmother and brother. The family tries to keep going as the war rages around them, and as they make increasingly frantic plans to flee the country for Israel, where Mina's mother already waits for them. But Mina is also a girl in love, giving her a private anguish to deal with along with the general tension and anxiety that permeates her world. Eli, her boyfriend, is Christian, and just the right age to join the local militias. Eli hides in the forest, making the great fig tree their meeting place. _________________________________________________ The filmmaker based the story on her own experiences growing up in war torn Ethiopia. She used a local crew and cast of Ethiopian actors, including genuine survivors of the Civil War. They bring a sense of authenticity to roles that often convey more without words than in the dialog. _________________________________________________ Davidian‘s future plans include a documentary about the gentrification of an Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, with another script in the works. She's also writing a feature about an Ethiopian Jewish girl searching for a father she thought long dead. The situation of Ethiopian Jews is certainly rich territory worthy of multiple film treatments. . . Source: @okayafrica
  • @bandrybarry’s adaptation of “If Beale Street Could Talk,” is coming out of @tiff_net with Oscar buzz! On one fateful European trip in 2013, Jenkins wrote two scripts: “Moonlight,” from Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play, and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” from James Baldwin’s novel. “Moonlight” came together over just 10 days in Brussels. “If Beale Street Could Talk” was written over six weeks in Berlin. _________________________________________________ On writing a script without the novel’s rights Jenkins said, “I just didn’t expect much to come of it. I remember writing it and thinking, ‘I’m not going to consider this a waste of time. I’m going to consider the best use of time.’ I had to consider myself that no matter what the outcome was that just the process of adapting it into a script was going to be thanks enough. And so once I really settled into that mind space, it was a really enjoyable writing process. And I think to be honest, the reason things went well with the estate when I came to them is that I wasn’t thirsty, as the kids say. I just said, ‘Hey, I love James Baldwin. I made a film six years ago for $15,000 and I adapted this book. I know I don’t have the rights but if you guys want to read it, you can see exactly what I want to do.’ And they listened. And it still took quite a few years. But without this air of pressure or this air of lustfulness to the material, they responded positively.” _________________________________________________ On shooting ‘Beale Street’ he shared, “There were profoundly emotional moments for me. There was a moment where I was sitting in a cafe in Berlin with a few dollars in my pocket and I was writing this thing with no real — if I’m being honest — no real hope that I would ever get to make it. And then here I am on set with all these fantastic actors actually fulfilling this dream. It was cathartic and incredibly emotional.” _________________________________________________ 📷: @tiff_net / Andréanne Gauthier Source: @phillytrib
  • At this year’s festival we screened Mariama Diallo’s “Hair Wolf,” and Assia Boundaoui’s “The Feeling of Being Watched.” Both filmmakers have been named as two of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2018 by @filmmakermag Congrats @diallogiallo and @assuss!
  • #Rafiki began with @Wanuri Kahiu’s desire to tell a modern love story based on modern African literature. She read several short stories before selecting “Jambula Tree,” by Monica Arac de Nyeko, to serve as the basis for the film because it was “so sweet and so kind and so patient.” From the story, Kahiu took Kena and Ziki as well as another character, the gossipy Mama Atim. Kahiu created the rest of the characters to fill out the story. The film’s visual language extends far past the two protagonists. Each of the film’s main spaces — Kena’s family’s apartment, Kena’s hideaway in a broken-down VW bus and Ziki’s room — reference artists who influenced Kahiu. Mickaline Thomas, South African visual artist Zanele Muholi and Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu each contributed to the film’s visual lexicon, Kahiu said. She also pointed to recent French films like Melanie Laurent’s “Breathe” and “Les adoptes.” _________________________________________________ Due to the LGBT themes in the story Rafiki has been banned in Kenya, so Kahui has had to file a lawsuit against the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) and the country's attorney general in order get the film screened in her home country. In order to be eligible for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a movie must have been shown in the country submitting it. The deadline for Oscar nomination submissions is Sept. 30. According to Variety, @Rafiki_movie will come to New York, Los Angeles, and five other cities later in 2018. . . Source: @intomore @buzzfeednews
  • @iamruthecarter was raised by her mother in Springfield, Massachusetts, she briefly considered acting but turned to costume design as a student at Hampton University. After working at the Santa Fe Opera, she moved to Los Angeles and took jobs on theatre productions and at a dance studio. One evening, she met a young filmmaker named @officialspikelee. In 1987, he gave Carter her first film job—on his second feature, “School Daze,” a “West Side Story”-inflected musical set at a historically black college. She has worked with Lee on fourteen films. Her costumes have brought to life such figures from black history as Joseph Cinqué, the West African leader of a slave-ship revolt, played by Djimon Hounsou in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad,” and Malcolm X, played by Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s bio-pic. To transform David Oyelowo into Martin Luther King, Jr., for @Ava DuVernay’s “Selma,” she made the actor’s shirt collars a little tight—“so that he would have the same fleshy roll that King did.” . . A traveling exhibition of her work, “Heroes & Sheroes,” just opened at the Heinz @HistoryCenter, in Pittsburgh. . . 📖 Excerpt from @newyorkermag’s “Ruth E. Carter’s Threads of History.” 📷: Awol Erizku
  • #TBT to #BlackStar18, relieve the festival by clicking the link in our bio (@blackstarfest ) for all the photos from this year’s festival! . . 📷: @embassy730
  • #TBT to the #BlackStar18 Awards! Congrats to all the winners: __________________________________ AUDIENCE AWARDS: • Favorite Experimental Film: Fucked Like a Star (Stefani Saintonge) _____________________________________________________________ • Favorite Documentary Feature: The Feeling of Being Watched (Assia Boundaoui) _____________________________________________________________ • Favorite Narrative Feature: Jinn (Nijila Mu’min) _____________________________________________________________ • Favorite Documentary Short: Black 14 (Darius Clark Monroe) _____________________________________________________________ • Favorite Narrative Short: Where the Water Runs (Dubois N. Ashong) _____________________________________________________________ • Favorite Youth Film (11-18): Beyond My Skin (Aniya Wolfe) _____________________________________________________________ • Favorite Youth Film (19-22): Hot and Bothered (Leah Byrd) _____________________________________________________________ • BlackStar Member Award: Resistance: The Battle of Philadelphia (M. Asli Dukan) _____________________________________________________________ • 21st Century Global Inclusion Awards for Emerging Voices: Narrative: War Paint (Katrelle Kindred) _____________________________________________________________ • 21st Century Global Inclusion Awards for Emerging Voices: Documentary: Birth of Afrobeat (Opiyo Okeyo) _____________________________________________________________ #bsff18 #byindiemeansnecessary #indiefilm #filmfestival #visitphilly #philly . . 📷: @embassy730
  • Congrats to the #BlackStar18 winners! Share with us in the comments your favorite films that you saw during this year’s festival. —————————————————— JURIED AWARDS: Best Feature Documentary Douvan Jou Ka Leve (Gessica Généus) —————————————————— Best Narrative Feature Jinn (Nijila Mu’min) —————————————————— Best Short Documentary Nuuca (Michelle Latimer) —————————————————— Best Short Narrative Where the Water Runs (Dubois N. Ashong) —————————————————— Best Experimental Film Fucked Like a Star (Stefani Saintonge) —————————————————— Best Youth Film (Ages 11-18) I Have Something to Tell You (Tshireletso Phalatse, Kagiso Baloyi, Rethabile Milisi) —————————————————— Best Youth Film (Ages 19-22) blu blak (King Ali Emeka)