#HBFF18 – MARKS AFRICAN HERITAGE MONTH WITH
DIVERSE AND MEANINGFUL PROGRAMMING, MARCH 2 – 4
All Access Passes & Tickets are on sale now at HalifaxBlackFilm.com
(Halifax, NS) – The 2nd annual Halifax Black Film Festival (#HBFF18) announces the official program and event lineup running March 2 – 4, 2018 as part of TD’s 2018 Black History Month Series. #HBFF18 will kick off with Nancy Buirski’s The Rape of Recy Taylor as an Atlantic Canada Premiere at Spatz Theatre and will close with Cory Bowles’ Black Cop.
This year’s festival also showcases the HBFF Black Market which includes, a panel discussion with filmmakers and a Workshop on producing documentaries with Emmy-Award Winning Producer, Laurens Grant. Festival goers can also expect community driven and youth oriented programming and live music.
“We are proud to be back with a great variety of films and events celebrating African Heritage Month in a meaningful way in Halifax and we are honored to open the festival with Nancy Buirski’s The Rape of Recy Taylor, a poignant film which has arrived at a very pivotal moment,” said Fabienne Colas, President and founder of HBFF. “It is important for us to shed the light on this part of history, the climate that we’re in and the unprecedented transformational #MeToo movement that is empowering more women to speak up.”
The 2nd annual Halifax Black Film Festival, created by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, is co-presented by TD Bank in collaboration with Global News.
OPENING NIGHT
Presented by TD Bank and Global News
The Rape of Recy Taylor
Atlantic Canada Premiere
Nancy Buirski | U.S.A. | 2017 | 91’ | English | Atlantic Premiere
Friday, March 2, 2018 – 7:00 PM – $20 – SPATZ Theatre
Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. This lm exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story.
“Recy Taylor, a name I know and I think you should know, too.” – Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globes.
The Rape of Recy Taylor had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival and was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Nights Special Prize for Human Rights in 2017 at the 74° Venice Biennale.
CLOSING NIGHT
Co-Presented by TD Bank and FIN Atlantic International Film Festival
Black Cop
Cory Bowles – Canada
2017 / 91’ – English
With: Ronnie Rowe Jr., Sophia Walker, Sèbastian Labelle, Simon Paul Mutuyimana, Taylor Olson
March 4 | 7PM | Cineplex Parc Lane | $15
It’s not easy being a black cop. Your community doesn’t trust you, your colleagues are wary of you, and everyone assumes you hate NWA. And when the world is on edge waiting for a grand jury verdict on a high-profile police case involving unarmed youth, you can bet all eyes are on you. For one black cop already struggling between duty and moral obligation, it only gets worse when he is profiled by his colleagues off-duty, nearly getting himself killed in the process – pushing him over the edge. Armed with the power of his badge, an antagonizing radio show for company, and some good old-fashioned rage – the stage is set for a whirlwind day filled with vendetta and just desserts – as black cop targets the very community that justifies his colleagues –on a collision course with his own identity.
HBFF BLACK MARKET
HBFF WORKSHOPS – March 3 & 4
#HBFF18 brings back the HBFF Black Market, a series where both locally and internationally renowned industry professionals, experts, thought leaders, visionaries and like-minded people, will share an exciting blend of cutting-edge thinking and real- world experience on today’s most critical filmmaking issues. We hope to foster future collaborations, maximize cross-border artistic exchanges and promote entrepreneurship in the field of filmmaking.
WORKSHOP: PRODUCING DOCUMENTARIES
With LAURENS GRANT, 3-time Emmy & Award-Winning Producer/Filmmaker
March 3 | 2PM | Lord Nelson Hotel
Co-presented with Women Making Waves
Learn about producing documentaries on revolutionary social movements—both past and present—from a master of the craft. In partnership with the Halifax Black Film Festival, WIFT-AT is thrilled to offer a workshop with acclaimed producer Laurens Grant on producing documentary.
Grant is a 3-time Emmy and a Peabody award-winning filmmaker and a Sundance Institute filmmaker fellow. Among Grant’s significant accomplishments, she directed and produced the documentary Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement which is Executive Produced by actor and activist Jesse Williams [Grey’s Anatomy] and received an NAACP Image Award nomination for outstanding news special. She produced the feature length documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution which premiered at Sundance and was named one of the top five documentaries of 2015 by the National Board of Review. She also produced the documentary Freedom Riders which premiered at Sundance, won three Primetime Emmys, and a Peabody.
Grant is also a consulting producer on the documentary, The Rape of Recy Taylor which received a human rights award at its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival / Biennale di Venezia.
PANEL DISCUSSION: DIVERSITY OFF & ON SCREEN
Sunday March 4 | 12:30PM | Halifax Public Library
A great panel of industry professionals will talk about the underrepresentation of Black talent off and on screen. They will share their experience regarding that issue as well as some ideas to help solve the problem in Halifax and the Atlantic region.
YOUTH PROGRAM
MOVIE DISCUSSION:
#HBFF18 is thrilled to introduce kids and Youth to black stories through powerful films so they too can celebrate African Heritage Month. 3 private free screenings will be offered to hundreds of kids. See details at HalifaxBlackFilm.com
March 2 | 1PM | Citadel High School (private screening for youth)
March 2 | 1PM | Halifax West High School (private screening for youth)
March 3 | 10:30AM | North Preston Community Center (private screening for youth)
COMMUNITY PROGRAM
MOVIE DISCUSSION: BLACK WEALTH MATTERS
March 3 | 1PM | Black Cultural Centre
Black Wealth Matters is “a movement to champion black wealth creation as a solution to socio-economic disadvantages afflicting blacks in North America”. A panel of Black community leaders will reflect on the issue and see how we can collectively make a change and empower the community socially and economically for maximum impact.
FRENCH PROGRAM: MARIANNES NOIRES
Kaytie Nielsen, Mame-Fatou Niang
March 4 | 1PM | Canadian Museum of Immigration
The screening will be followed by a Q&A.
Seven different French-born women of African descent take us through their battles and retrace their most grueling paths in order to understand the social confines that have affected them professionally, psychologically, and emotionally. They share their ideas and solutions to France’s most daunting issues at the heavy intersection of racism and misogyny, and they bravely lead the way forward.
MUSIC – CONCERT
IDEAS OF NORTH with Violinist ANDREW NATHANIEL FORDE
Canadian Museum of Immigration | March 3 | 2PM
Sponsored by TD | Produced by Forde Music Group
Presented by Pier 21 | Supported by Halifax Black Film Festival
In Ideas of North, award-winning Violinist and composer Andrew Forde creates a modern interpretation of the work of Glenn Gould, breathing new life into a classical legacy. Forde brings listeners on an intimate, compelling journey to experience live music as it once was – as performance art.
For full #HBFF18 programming and events, visit: www.HalifaxBlackFilm.com
About the Halifax Black Film Festival – #HBFF18
Created in 2017 by the Fabienne Colas Foundation (FCF), the Halifax Black Film Festival is the 3rd black film festival in Canada created by the FCF. In 2005, the FCF created the Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF) which became Canada’s largest Black Film Festival, entirely dedicated to black reality from all four corners of the globe. In 2013, the Fabienne Colas Foundation created the Toronto Black Film Festival, which is celebrating its 5th edition this February 2017. The Halifax Black Film Festival is dedicated to celebrating the very best in cinematic work dealing with the varied experiences of black people from diverse communities. Their mandate is to provide an opportunity for filmmakers to shine the spotlight on authentic stories that reflect the realities of black experiences.
To learn more, visit: www.halifaxblackfilm.com
Get Social #HBFF18
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For Media Inquiries:
Wendy Phillips, Publicist | wendy@pprl.ca| 902-492-0960
Talar Adam, Press Relations Director | Press@TorontoBlackFilm.com | 514-833-0274