Superfly: Everything you need to know about the American Black Film Festival 2018
In its 21st year, the American Black Film Festival begins today in Miami Beach, Florida. The festival – which brings together the nation’s largest gathering of black film and TV enthusiasts – has probably never come at a more appropriate time.
The #BlackLivesMatter campaign has continued to gather steam in the face of continued accusations of police misconduct across the US. Black film & TV has been gathering its own steam for quite some time too, and while the seeds for this go right back to the beginning of modern cinema itself with the issues of films like Birth of a Nation, over the last few years the industry has been forced to sit up and listen to what black directors, writers, actors, and actresses have to say.
The ABFF was set up in 1997 and is a dedicated platform for showcasing quality film and television content by and about people of African descent. Founded by Jeff Friday, it supports emerging artists to foster a wider range of images, stories, and storytellers represented in the entertainment industry. The festival takes place over five action-packed days with films, panel discussions, networking events, and more, including a star-studded opening night screening of Director X’s new film Superfly at this year’s event. But what else can audiences look forward to?
Masterclasses
This year’s festival features masterclasses around film financing and nailing auditions, but it’s the class with Korin D. Huggins – executive producer on the recent remake of Roots – around how to become a showrunner which is the real eye catcher. The class promises to offer insight, advice, and guidance on how to try and get one of the TV world’s most coveted posts.
ABFF Talks
Talks at this year’s ABFF include conversations with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, who was also the winner of the 2011 HBO Short Film award at ABFF. Speaking about Coogler’s contribution to the festival to Essence, ABFF founder and CEO Jeff Friday proclaimed, “Ryan is a tremendous talent, but more importantly a humble and thoughtful human being. It is because of people like him that the ABFF continues its mission of supporting inclusion in film and television.”
Other talks include “Strong Black Leads” and “Black Love” as well as “Without A Net: The Digital Divide in America”, which will look at the disparity of access to technology and the effect it has on public school students. The talk could offer some great insight into one of the reasons so many young black filmmakers are discouraged at the first hurdle.
Seminars
There are various fascinating seminars centered around rights, distribution, creativity, and development, but the one that will stand out to most will surely be the Netflix Originals film team presenting a seminar on diversity and inclusion. As they’re looking for up-and-coming African-American writers and filmmakers as well as freelance crew members, it might be worth taking a pen drive with some of your stuff on it or even a hard copy of a script – if you really want to go old skool – on the off chance you have the opportunity to showcase your talents to them.
Talent Showcases
Speaking of which, continuing into its 21st year in the festival is the HBO Short Film Competition, which has continuously given a great opportunity to young filmmakers to showcase their work to industry professionals. If you want to see who’s coming through in the next generation, that’s the one to check out. There’s also the ABFF Comedy Wings competition and the Best of the ABFF awards presentation on Saturday evening.
Spotlight screenings
The festival will kick off with a screening of Director X’s remake of the blaxploitation classic Superfly. The film stars Trevor Jackson (Grown-ish), Jason Mitchell (Mudbound), and Michael K. Williams (12 Years a Slave) and looks like it could go on to make a big splash at the box office when it comes out today too.
Other screening highlights include Whitney and The First Purge, but the Inside the Writers Room of Atlanta event will definitely be a big one to look out for as writer Stephen Glover screens the “Fubu” episode and explains how it went from page to screen.
