“TWINKLE TWINKLE,” THE 2023 BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL CAME BACK WITH A BANG

This year showed how much the BlackStar Film Festival has grown, being held in Center City, Philadelphia’s most prominent theaters on The Avenue of The Arts. To think, just a few years ago, we were congregating at the University of Pennsylvania’s International House.

The vision and implementation of every artist have us dumbfounded! The time it takes to share a story, and better yet, to translate that story into film for critique, is brave yet profound.

In some sorts, the BlackStar Film Festival is like a reunion. Some familiar faces and new ones traveling near and far to participate in what is Philadelphia’s biggest film festival for people of color.

Here are “some” of our takeaways from this year’s festival:

The feature documentary film “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” directed by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster, was absolutely astounding!

This isn’t a documentary about her life, but a glimpse into her mind. It is poetry in the form of film. Imagine sitting with your great auntie as she shares a moment in time and takes you on a journey of social justice with snippets of intimate conversations with a legend, an introduction to her family and loved ones, and her perspectives on traveling through this thing called life and the idea of beyond.

Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land, Directed by Eteranl Pok, is an absolute must-see for people of color who own property and educate themselves on the various ways to keep what you or your family members have worked so hard for and in the family.

Many people are unaware that buying property is one of the most significant business decisions you will ever make and will potentially set your family up with a tool for accessing generational wealth if you take the time to learn how the system works. Gaining Ground focuses on the Black Farming community and the injustices that they have gone through with discriminatory measures that have plagued African Americans who have cultivated land and been taken advantage of by the system and organizations to take land unfairly and disband the Black family.

Without giving too much away. The stories told by these Black families who have owned and do own acres of land will get you emotional and is a cautious tale of what can happen if you don’t strategize and exercise your rights to educate yourself on the laws, history, and more.

There is so much more to share on the other fabulous films that premiered in Philadelphia, but to grasp the whole experience, you must get involved!

THE WINNERS

Jury Awards:

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM

Jurors: Awa Konaté, Nour Ouayda, Portia E. Cobb

Winner: Before I Let Go, dir. Cameron A Granger

Five years ago, the eastside neighborhood of a town called Bad City was leveled by giant monsters called the Titans. Before I Let Go is told from the eyes of a filmmaker who was recently hired by the city to document the community’s recovery efforts — and now is seeing just how different the road to recovery can look for a city, and for its people.

Honorable Mention: Quiet As It’s Kept, dir. Ja’Tovia Gary

Quiet As It’s Kept is a contemporary cinematic response to The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison’s first novel, published in 1970. Set in Ohio in 1941, the book is an evocative illustration of the everyday particulars of colorism and its ravaging effects on the intramural.

BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Jurors: Loira Limbal, Louis Massiah, Naomi Johnson

Winner: Fire Through Dry Grass, dirs. Andres “Jay” Molina and Alexis Neophytides

Wearing snapback caps and Air Jordans, the Reality Poets aren’t typical nursing home residents. In Fire Through Dry Grass, these young, Black and Brown, disabled artists document their pandemic experiences, their rhymes underscoring the danger they feel in the face of institutional neglect.

BEST FEATURE NARRATIVE 

Jurors: Aseye Tamakloe, Elhum Shakerifar, Jason Reynolds

Winner: Girl, dir. Adura Onashile

Eleven-year-old Ama and her mother, Grace, take solace in the gentle but isolated world they obsessively create. But Ama’s thirst for life and her need to grow and develop challenge the rules of their insular world and gradually force Grace to reckon with a past she struggles to forget.

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY

Jurors: Aiko Masubuchi, Asad Muhammad, Tracy Rector

Winner: Bone Black: Midwives vs. the South, dir. Imani Nikyah Dennison

Bone Black: Midwives vs. The South is an experimental short documentary about the history and erasure of Black midwives in the American South and how the attack on birth workers has contributed to the Black infant and maternal mortality crisis.

Honorable Mention: A Bear Named Jesus, dir. Terril Calder

In the stop-motion film A Bear Named Jesus, we meet Archer Pechawis, who lives on the rez. At Archer’s Aunty Gladys’ funeral, his mom is abducted by rabid bears and converted to fundamentalist Christianity. That night, he hears a tap on the window — it’s a bear named Jesus, who has come to apologize for the actions of the rabid bears. A Bear Named Jesus is an allegory for religious interference, with an aching yet humorous look at estrangement and mourning for the loss of someone still living. 

BEST SHORT NARRATIVE

Jurors: Carmen Thompson, Dagmawi Woubshet, DJ Lynnée Denise

Winner: Sèt Lam, dir. Vincent Fontano

In an insular city’s ghetto, amid a trance ritual, a young girl is paralyzed by fear. She is afraid her loved ones may be hurt or even disappear. It is then that her grandmother tells her the strange tale of Edwardo, the first one of his kin to have seen and fought death.

Honorable Mention: The Truth About Alvert, the Last Dodo, dir. Nathan Clement

On Réunion Island, little Lunet and his grandfather Dadabé set out on a quest to turn a chicken into a dodo bird whose magic feathers might save the sick mother of the kid.

Special Prizes:

BEST DIRECTOR OF CLIMATE STORYTELLING (CENTER FOR CULTURAL POWER)

Winner: Mirasol, dir. Annalise Lockhart

Mirasol lives a monotonous and somewhat lonely life on a farm with her mother and grandmother. One day, out gardening, she finds a seedling growing in a puddle outside. She takes care of it secretly, eventually getting the courage to show her mother what she’s been working on.

SHINE AWARD

Winner: MnM, dir. Twiggy Pucci Garçon

MnM is an exuberant portrait of chosen sisters Mermaid and Milan, two emerging runway divas in the drag ballroom community. Celebrating their joy, siblinghood, and unapologetic personas, the film explores the power and beauty of being nonbinary in a community that prizes gender “realness.”

AUDIENCE AWARDS: 

BEST EXPERIMENTAL 

Winner: Before I Let Go, dir. Cameron A. Granger 

BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Winner: Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, dir. by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster

BEST FEATURE NARRATIVE 

Winner: Mountains, dir. by Monica Sorelle

While looking for a new home for his family, a Haitian demolition worker is faced with the realities of redevelopment as he is tasked with dismantling his rapidly gentrifying Miami neighborhood.

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY

Winner: Over the Wall, dir. Krystal Tingle

Nine seconds — it’s about all you have. Welcome to the fast-paced world of a NASCAR pit crew. Over the Wall is an immersive film following Brehanna Daniels, the first Black woman pit crew member and tire changer in NASCAR, as she works her way back from injury to participate in the Daytona 500, the biggest race in the sport. It is a testament to the power of perseverance and what it takes to be a trailblazer.

BEST SHORT NARRATIVE

Winner: Look Back At It, dir. Felicia Pride

A 40-something single mother gets her groove back with assistance from her teenage daughter.

Congratulations to all the winners and those who participated in this year’s festival!

We know what you’re thinking, especially those living in Philadelphia. “How can I attend”? “What is the BlackStar Film Festival”? We hear you, and the best way that you can plan with purpose is to sign up for their newsletter to be updated on year-round events and next year’s festival. You can also show your support and get involved by becoming a member. Lastly, subscribe to Many Lumens with Maori Karmael Holmes, as she has candid conversations with the groundbreaking artist on culture, social change, and more.

If you enjoyed this, see our experience at last year’s festival.