Black Film Festival Returns to The Parrish
The Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center is teaming up with the Parrish Art Museum for the second annual Black Film Festival, to be held at the museum on Fridays July 23 and July 30.
They’ll be presenting award-winning feature films and shorts that raise awareness about mental health and the impact of gentrification specific to Black communities, while depicting life-affirming personal stories of hope, resilience, and overcoming adversities.
The film festival is an extension of The Center’s Thinking Forward Lecture Series. Each evening includes a short and a feature chosen by a team from The Center, The Witness Project of Long Island, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, Office of Minority Health, and the Parrish Art Museum. Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott will be there.
‘We are honored to be able to partner once again with the Parrish,” says BCCRC Executive Director Bonnie Michelle Cannon.” Our series brings the community together, to speak openly about being Black in America, opening hearts and minds to limitless opportunities. We are providing positive and inspirational role models for our children, teens, and adults. These talks and films have helped create deep and open conversations around racism, stereotypes, and inequalities.”
Films will be presented outdoors, and attendees are asked to bring their own chair. The museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $5 for Parrish members and friends of the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreation Center, and free for students.
On July 23 from 8 to 11 p.m., the festival will present “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and “elephant.” Both evenings’ film screenings will be preceded by a 7 p.m. special tour for festival attendees of the museum’s current exhibition, Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim
elephant is a short film about a woman in her late 30s who appears to have it all — a caring husband, two children and a good job. But Nicole is suffering from a crippling depression that, due to the stigma attached to mental illness, she is trying to keep secret. Set over 24 hours, The Elephant shows how a series of otherwise minor events, coupled with Nicole’s dissociation from family and friends, lead her to a state of utter desperation.
In “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind. As he struggles to reconnect with his family and reconstruct the community he longs for, his hopes blind him to the reality of his situation.
A wistful odyssey populated by skaters, squatters, street preachers, playwrights, and other locals on the margins, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a sweeping story of hometowns and how they’re made — and kept alive — by the people who love them.
On Friday, July 30, the festival will present the short “My Father The Mover,” followed by a Q&A with Director Julia Jansch, followed by the feature film “Shaina.”
In “My Father the Mover,” a South African film, Alatha’s father calls himself a “Mover.” Using African electronic Gqom beats, he motivates kids in the town of Khayelitsha to find their superpowers. However, Alatha is still looking for her own powers. In a moment together, this is all about to change. The film won the Grand Jury Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020 and was accepted into numerous other Oscar-qualifying festivals, including Palm Springs, Flickers’ Rhode Island, Heartland, Cleveland, Amdocs, OFF, Florida, Bermuda and more.
In “Shaina,” directed by Beautie Masvaure, Shine is a teenager in Zimbabwe who has a knack for making something out of nothing and could have a promising future as an engineer, except for the fact that she doesn’t believe in herself.
When she and her best friends Faro, Stella, and Busi are faced with a host of grown-up problems — loss of loved ones, overdue exam fees and the curse of “blessers” — they come close to giving up. Will Shine and her friends be able to overcome their circumstances, or will they admit defeat in the face of adversity? Their story is one of forgiveness and of friendship, of creating a new family from the people who love you, and of the very real power to be found in girls supporting girls.
“This festival is an opportunity to shed light on different cultures and their life experiences,” said BCCRC Executive Director Bonnie Michelle Cannon. “We will have more this summer. Stay tuned. The only way that we are going to come together is to learn more about each other and to spend time with each other.”
Tickets for July 23 are available here and tickets for July 30 are available here.
