Black History Film Festival 2024

The Afrikan Poetry Theatre presents… The 9th Annual A.P.T. Black History Month   Film Festival 2024 Feb. 17th 4PM-6:30pm Sharp Location: The Bartos Screening Room Co-Curated By: Museum of The Moving Image @movingimage.us Admission Free With RSVP https://movingimage.org/event/black-history-month-film-festival-2024/ Featured Film: Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between Director Claire Jeffreys. 2023, 70Min. Hubris, anger, prejudice…doo-wop, reggae, rock…expectations, heartbreak, transformation…Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between examines the fifty-year career of this genre-bending, biracial singer-songwriter and asks why, as a deejay says in the film, “the name Garland Jeffreys either means nothing to you or everything to you.”  Film Short Selections include: Sequin  Dir. Averi Israel. 2022, 4 mins. With Chloe Harper-Smith, Shantel Moses, Mattie Vasquez. Sequin is a narrative short about the wisdom of children and seeing beauty in our everyday interactions. The film depicts a grandmother and her granddaughter, Nya, sitting on a bench and waiting for a bus. Nya plays with her doll then notices Kyiv, who is gender-nonconforming; has beautiful, lavender-colored hair, very similar to Nya’s doll; and wears a fabulous birthday outfit. Nya tries to get Kyiv’s attention but fails repeatedly until finally, Kyiv takes notice and a friendship begins.   Joekeim Chemist (Mic’d) Dir. Karen Tamanji Stein & Craig Williams. 2023, 11 mins. With Anthony S. Weston, Jr., Natalie Shields, Saiku Branch, Vernon Williams. Produced by The Afrikan Poetry Theatre, this short film follows Joekeim, a disgruntled chemist who thinks he has hit paydirt when he concocts a pill that allows him to hear people’s conversations after they ingest it. Unfortunately, his concoction works too well, and he is let in on a secret that he didn’t want to know. With his heart broken, he comes up with a sinister plan to use his pill for revenge.  Currency Dir. Crystal Z Campbell. 2019, 3 mins. Featuring a performance by Angela Davis Johnson, this experimental video is a sound film of refusal––a woman wears bygone forms of currency on the tips of her hair while preserving the greatest currency for herself. The Bond  Dir. Jahmil Eady. 2022, 16 mins. The Bond follows Aria, a pregnant and incarcerated woman who fights for her most precious connection against a system designed to isolate her.   Invisible Man  Dir. Ravi Vietro. 2020, 11 mins. Produced by Ghetto Film School, this thrilling narrative short follows Isaiah, a young Black painter who works as a security guard at the fictional New York Museum. After meeting the new exhibiting artist, Isaiah starts to question her vision.