Summer 2013: Black Film Festival

The Newark Black Film Festival (NBFF) kicks off its 39th season on June 19 at the Newark Museum. Youth Cinema, the accompanying summer-long series of free children's features and short films, debuts on July 8 at The Newark Public Library, and July 10 at the Museum.
 

Newark Black Film Festival Schedule

Screenings start at 7pm are free, but seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. They will take place at the Museum unless otherwise noted.

June 19: Kinshasa Symphony
This film by Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer shows how people living in one of the most chaotic cities in the world have managed to forge one of the most complex systems of human cooperation ever invented: a symphony orchestra. It is a film about the Congo, about the people of Kinshasa and about music.
Speaker: Jean Claude Chiyuka, Kinshasa Symphony and Jacques Lacombe, Music Director for the NJ Symphony Orchestra.

June 26: Cosmic Africa
A co-production by Cosmos Studio, Ã…land Pictures and Anne Rogers, and directed by Craig and Damon Foster. This film sheds new light on traditional African astronomy and in turn global understanding of the world's oldest science.
Speaker: Derrick H. Pitts, Chief Astronomer, Franklin Institute Science Museum.

July 10: Beasts of the Southern Wild
Hushpuppy, a six-year-old girl who lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community in the Bayou cut off from the world. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, his tough love prepares her for the time when he's no longer there to protect her. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.
Speaker: Dr. Clement A. Price, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of the Rutgers Institute On Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience at Rutgers - Newark.

July 17: Standing In The Shadows Of Motown
@ New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
This documentary and performance film tells the Funk Brothers' saga through archival footage and still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Funk Brothers backing up Chaka Khan, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Montell Jordan, Meshell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, and Gerald Levert.
Host: Felix Hernandez, Radio Personality & Musicologist

July 24: Sing Your Song
An up close look at a great American: Harry Belafonte. A patriot to the end and a champion for worldwide human rights, Belafonte is one of the truly heroic cultural and political figures of the past 60 years. Told from Belafonte's point of view, the film charts his life from a boy born in New York and raised in Jamaica, who returns to Harlem in his early teens where he discovers the American Negro Theatre and the magic of performing.
Speaker: Jason L. Pollard, Film Editor.

July 31: Woman Thou Art Loosed
@ CitiPlex12 Newark
On the 7th Day "” The Ames' seem to have built the perfect life until their six year old daughter is kidnapped; over the course of seven days they begin to uncover secrets about their past that could rip their marriage and lives apart. Directed by Neema Barnette staring Blair Underwood & Sharon Leal.
Speaker: TBD
 

NBFF Youth Cinema Schedule

Youth Cinema will be held on Mondays at The Newark Public Library at 10:30 am and at the Newark Museum on Wednesdays at 1 pm unless otherwise noted.

July 8 and 10:
Follow The Drinking Gourd - Runaway slaves journey north by following directions in a song titled "The Drinking Gourd."
The Outer Planets - Alien space travelers Adi and Woops give students a lift to the outer planets.
George Washington Carver: His Life And His Work - Carver's life story, from his birth into slavery to his many accomplishments in the fields of science, agriculture and horticulture.

July 15 and 17
July 17 at 10 am @CityPlex12 Newark
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - The animal castaways end up in the African wilderness, where they meet Alex the Lion's family.

July 22 and 24
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain - A young African boy brings rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain.
Standing Up For Freedom: The Story of Rosa Parks - Rosa Parks made history by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.
Barack Obama: The Story Of Our 44th President - Facts about President Obama, the 44th president of the United States and the first African-American president in American history.

July 29 and 31
Myths, Legends & Traditional Holidays From Latin America - Two siblings introduce children to Latin American folktales and holidays.
Portugal - Travel to the capital city of Lisbon to snack on pastries and shop for salt-cod at a fish market.
South Africa: How Tortoise Won Respect ¬- Find out how the tortoise uses his wisdom to outsmart the monster and save the animals.

Aug. 7: Akeelah And the Bee
- Akeelah enters various spelling bee contests despite the objections of her mother.

Aug. 14:
Global Wonders: African American - Join twins Trey and Alisha and their friends Lee and Marisa on a play date of dreams and imagination
White Water - A journey of self-discovery that is based on a childhood experience of co-author Michael Bandy.