The festival will screen 85 features, documentaries, and short films.
Themes of love, family, unity, diversity, and hope are highlighted on the big screen as the 25th Roxbury International Film Festival gets underway this week.
The festival features 85 features, shorts, and documentaries by and about people of color. It runs through July 2.
“We have grown so much in the last 25 years but still remain committed to local and fiercely independent filmmakers who beautifully tell stories that show the depth and breadth of communities of color around the world,” RoxFilm Director Lisa Simmons said.
Leading off the festival is “Welcoming the Embrace,” a documentary about the making of The Embrace, the MLK memorial sculpture on Boston Common, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.
In the second opening night slot is “The Honeymoon,” a South African female-led comedy about a jilted bride who decides to take her honeymoon with her friends to Zanzibar. Also screening on opening night are the shorts “The Boston Photograph” by Clennon King, and “The Sweetest Vacation,” by Ryan Stevens Harris.
Closing out the film festival is a throwback screening of “Eve’s Bayou” followed by a conversation with director Kasi Lemmons, who filmed the Whitney Houston biopic, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” in Boston, including Peoples Baptist Church in Roxbury. “Eve’s Bayou” is a Southern Gothic coming-of-age drama. Jurnee Smollett (“Lovecraft Country,” “Birds of Prey”) plays a young girl who catches her father (Samuel L. Jackson) in a compromising situation.
Screenings take place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Hibernian Hall, and Northeastern University. The virtual program, RoxFilm@Home, will allow viewers to stream movies from June 28 to July 2, without leaving their couches. Besides documentary and narrative films, the festival includes panel discussions, parties, script readings, workshops, and much more.
Other notable premieres include “Powering Puerto Rico,” a chronicle of the island’s struggles in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria by Northeastern University’s Adam Fischer. In “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn,” documentarian Timothy Harris turns his camera on Malcolm Kenyatta, a “poor, gay, Black man from North Philly,” to capture his historic run for the U.S. Senate. Another highlight is “The Five Demands,” a documentary about the 1969 student strike at City University of New York. More than 200 black and Puerto Rican students occupied 17 buildings demanding a more equitable education. The legacy of slavery is the theme of the documentary “Invented Before You Were Born.”
Over its 25 years, the Roxbury festival has screened 1,500 films to more than 35,000 attendees.
“The films in this year’s festival, as in the past, uplift important stories, histories and people while also educating, entertaining and bringing joy to a wider audience,” Simmons said.
For more information on the film festival and to see a complete screening schedule, go to www.roxfilmfest.com.
Boston Movie News 