Roxbury Filmmakers Merge Art And Activism For 2020 Roxbury International Film Festival
As creators across the country shift to a new virtual reality, there is a buzz happening in Boston.
The Roxbury International Film Festival kicks off with a new virtual twist, and a consistent vision — celebrating filmmakers of color. Since its inception in 1999, the festival has grown to host some of Hollywood’s brightest and local black creatives. Last year, the late Toni Morrison’s documentary “Pieces of Me” opened the festival in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts.
This year, the festival has intersected with art and activism with the opening of “The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show”; a film that is apropos to today’s current climate. With the election looming, and artists finding ways to survive and use their voice, this film chronicling 1 week in 1968 takes a look inside the historical moment where, “racial tensions were inflaming the nation and a divisive election was underway. America was exploding politically and culturally, much like today.”
The film features interviews with Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Lena Horne and Aretha Franklin, telling the story through contemporary interviews with Belafonte, Whoopi Goldberg, Questlove and many others. The interviews with Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy are among their last television appearances before both were assassinated.
Following the opening night film will be a Q&A with the Director Yoruba Richen and Gina Belafonte.
The Roxbury International Film Festival has found ways to incorporate local black businesses with dinner and a cocktail by providing a list of Boston’s black owned restaurants and wine stores, like the Urban Grape.
Aspiring writers will enjoy a virtual experience on October 3rd with the addition of the “Lunch Hour” where emerging Roxbury writers participate in a daily live reading of their new screenplays. While Jasmine Guy stars in a short film, “Illegal Rose” about a woman who rescues an ice detention center detainee. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Guy and the Director Deborah Riley Draper on October 4th.
According to their press release Festival Director Lisa Simmons states: “We are excited to continue our commitment to bringing the best in truly independent stories that celebrate the lives of underrepresented people around the world. Now more than ever is the time for these stories and these filmmakers to be championed for creating films that unearth histories, bring issues to the forefront, counter narratives and champion change.”
Activism and Art are converging, and Roxbury is finding its voice with a new Nubian Drive-In for the community centered on showcasing Black movies. Across the way and a stones throw away from Malcolm X’s childhood home, a “Black Lives Matter” mural is sprawled on the ground of Washington Street in the newly renamed Nubian Square — once called Dudley Station. Boston has a rich history and legacy of artists and activists including Dr. Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass and others.
This past July, before the mandatory out of state quarantine started on August 1st 2020, Roxbury International Film Festival Alumni Dominga Martin was directing a music video for VH-1 “You Oughta Know Artist” Russell Taylor. The music video “Wake Up” in collaboration with the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign Roxbury Arts/Culture Committee was the first film production in the city to pull a permit during the pandemic. Boston creatives came together in the spirit of collaboration to produce a work of art as a motivating tool to encourage the community to vote.
“Directing this project at home was a full circle moment for me. I grew up right around the corner from where the Black Lives Matter mural is located and traveled through Dudley station for many years with dreams of being a filmmaker,” says Dominga.
The Covid Compliant set required a Covid - 19 compliance officer with a mandatory check in each day, including temperature check and washing station on site. “I almost got kicked off my own set on the 2nd day because the heat made my temperature rise. It was a very serious moment for me and a reality check of how serious this moment is for us as artists across the country. Nevertheless, this is a time for artists to hone in and create work that matters while staying safe.”
Featured in the music video is a custom made gown, Dominga named the #sayhername gown, which she commissioned from local designer Joelle Fontaine of I AM KREYOL and Metamind Art Collective; a team of visual artists who created the images. "4AM in Roxbury" tells the behind the scenes of the making of the video, and features Cinematographer Malcolm Purnell who's worked on The Joker and Boston's City on A Hill (Showtime).
“Sometimes as creators, we do not always know what to say. I wanted to pay homage in a creative way that expressed the dignity and grace of these black women who were taken from us so soon.” The dress features Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland and Dr. King’s mother Alberta Williams King, who was assassinated in a church while playing an organ.
Wake Up will screen this upcoming October 8th and 9th at the Newark Arts Festival in partnership with the Newark Museum of Art.
The Roxbury International Film Festival runs from September 30 - October 5th. www.roxfilmfest.com