Shadow & Act's American Black Film Festival (ABFF) 2012 Wrap-Up (Reviews & Interviews)

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• Angelb | June 28, 2012 2:07 PMReply

  Well praise the Lord for Shadow & Act! Really dude? Give me a break! Yes, there need to be more press coverage at Black film festivals but why are you pushing us to praise you for doing your job?! Are you not a blog site that cover such events? You sound really arrogant dude. Just do your job by writing reviews and conducting interviews. This blog post would have been more appropriate addressed to all the mainstream press that does not cover Black film festivals. I'm not understanding why you would post this to your advocate readers. Are they not supportive?
  If you want to blame some one, I agree with Charles Judson below - "Blame it on their publicist!" Some of the actors/actress and their publicist are so stuck-up that they only go after mainstream coverage. However, they get a reality check when calls are not returned and/or ignored. Maybe some poc press are tired of reaching out to people who do not want to be covered by non-mainstream/popular press. It's unfortunate because little do they know, some smart mainstream, follow the trends of Black press and feed off of them. Let's not forget, you as in Shadow & Act is now working for/with indiewire. Anyways, if you want accolades, just ask for you. We appreciate this cute blog and Vanessa for doing her job but frankly its a turn off when reading post like this.
  
  PS: And so what if someone post a review after yours. My God, what about support for filmmakers. Humble yourself.

• Charles Judson | June 28, 2012 3:47 PM

  Actually, I do see the lack of coverage as a problem and it's not something to blame publicists for. Here in Atlanta we no longer have a full time film critic. The last one wasn't even really full time as he had been covering Theater, TV and Film before he was laid off and brought back on a contract basis. When folks submit to our festival, I try to be honest about what kind of press coverage they can get when they ask. We are still able to get quite a lot of coverage, but it's not the same as when the AJC, Creative Loafing and Sunday Paper could collectively review a good 30 to 40 of our films, giving at least half of our features coverage. That's pretty much happening across the board in most cities. You'll likely find someone from the Lifestyle section put on covering your film if you're lucky. I feel for filmmakers that spend more time answering basic profile questions than questions about their film or their own philosophies. I'm still working on my follow up to up my first A Crisis of Culture piece and it's focusing on the overall lack of Black filmcentric writers, critics, blogs and sites, as well as conversations. I have nothing against the Racialicious type of blogs of the world, however, the dominance those blogs like have about film I find not all that helpful in building up and promoting any type of Black film community. Taking lessons from the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Theater movement of the 1960s, the Beat Poets, the French New Wave and the recent indie-film boom of the 1990s (when indieWIRE started as nothing more than a daily email blast), it's not in the mainstream press we will make the strides. It's us having more conversations, discussions, heated debates and getting to know the folks that will transition from bloggers, reviewers and critics into filmmakers themselves that we can make the greatest impact. The patting of the back may seem a little self-serving, but for us at CinemATL it felt pretty good having covered local Atlanta and Georgia films that went to Sundance and SXSW long before anybody else outside of the city knew about those films. This isn't film reviews, but set visits and interviews. Some of the films we covered turned out to be bad, or never finished and many turned out amazing. Lots of those filmmakers are now the guys who are working on some of the big films coming to Atlanta and others have gone on to other cities to take their careers to the next level. We also covered any and all film events. Now we're back to a situation here in Atlanta that no one is filling that role and we've started figuring out how we can recruit people to get that going again. Not only to help the community, but because it's also a great place to get your grounding and get your name out there. Let me stress, I'm not against sites like Racialicious. Commenting on (pop) culture from their perspective is vital, even if I don't always agree, but that's not film criticism, not by a long shot. Nor do I think from a filmmakers perspective (social perspective yes, from a craft standpoint no) is much of the critique all that useful. But, to rely on those sites to provide that would be silly for me to even worry about. Let them do what they do and I'll focus my efforts elsewhere. By the way, if you're in Atlanta, Macon or Athens, we're going to be reaching out to some of the people we know to see if we can possibly organize some recruitment meetings to find filmmakers and writers who want to help cover film across Georgia. Likely will go down later in July or August. On Facebook be on the look out for info coming from either CinemATL, Film Athens and possibly Macon Film Festival pages at some point. Hoping for some good response once we kick it into gear.

• WOW | June 26, 2012 8:39 AMReply

  "Ain't no conspiracy!" "Black folk just gotta work harder!" "Blame it on their publicist!" "Make better films!" "Stop complaining! and so on and so on." No truer words have been spoken. The blame game is dead and reaps no rewards. So if all Nadia and Darkan said be true, now what?! If we want a stronger, more vibrant film culture we need folks like Vanessa busting ass. Great work and hopefully it will inspire more people to replicate her hard work, even on a local level ~Charles Judson

• Donella | June 25, 2012 2:17 PMReply

  "And now that I've posted this, don't be surprised if reviews suddenly start turning up all over the place :)" From your keyboard & mouse to God's screen monitor.

• Angelb | June 28, 2012 1:35 PM

  Isn't that the point? Kudos for being the first....lol. [patting you on the top of your head]

• marco bolo | June 25, 2012 11:30 AMReply

  Vanessa if you took a moment from all your hard work that weekend and made it over it over to KOD, i hope the moment you stepped into the spot you got round of applause!
  Respect!

• Crimson | June 25, 2012 11:12 AMReply

  Look, if there wasn't a Shadow and Act, I don't know. It's not only in black festivals that people ignore coverage. I was shocked to see that in your own parent company's review roundup of Los Angeles Film Fest that the ultimate winner ALL IS WELL wasn't included! Or was OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY or was MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. I guess BEASTS OF SOUTHERN WILD and GIMME THE LOOT filled their black quota. If it were not for you guys, there would be nothing about the black movies cause the white man sure don't give a hot damn.

• ROLO | June 25, 2012 7:58 PM

  Tambay, Ask your people at Indiewire about this my man. I just went and looked at the post Crimson is writing of and that is wicked. All the Black directed flicks are no where to be found! All is Well won the whole thing! And didn't get a review! Middle of Nowhere was a big premiere like Steve Carrell's movie and Southern Wild and didn't get a review! Oversimplication is one of the Best Reviewed Black Films of the year so far didn't get a review from them! Darkan, Make better films can't be an argument on these three. I say that's wicked to the root. SMDH too. It could be on purpose or it could be subconscious but it IS and it's not right. Thanks for pointing this out Crimson and breaking it down Nadia!!!!

• Darkan | June 25, 2012 11:43 AM

  Well said Nadia. I agree with you 100% And once again I can hear a slew of responses to your post. "Yall need to Lighten up!" "Ain't no conspiracy! " Black folk just gotta work harder!" "Blame it on their publicist!" "Make better films!" "Stop complaining!" and so on and so on... SMDH.

• Nadia | June 25, 2012 11:30 AM

  And you know what's funny about that Crimson, those two films (Beasts of the Southern Wild and Gimme The Loot) are the only 2 "black films" that were directed by non-black filmmakers. So the "black films" that were directed by non-black filmmakers got looks but the black films directed by black filmmakers were ignored. I'm remembering that bell hooks video that was posted a while back about black filmmakers not being needed anymore because white filmmakers can tell our stories.

• blah, blah | June 25, 2012 10:37 AMReply

  I agree wholeheartedly with this post. Last year I had the pleasure to attend ABFF and was surprised how many folks came down there just to party and take pics with celebrities as opposed to watching the films. I mean the screenings, which promised the appearance of big names, were always full however the screenings which just featured the work of new filmmakers didn't get as much play. Matter of fact, last year I wrote about a number of the films I'd saw for my blog and to this day, those film reviews still manage to get good page view hits. As much as we talk about the importance of not only cultivating independent Black film but supporting it, we bloggers and writers sometimes fail to follow through.

• Charles Judson | June 25, 2012 11:04 AM

  It's not only about the support, it's the conversations and dialogue themselves that are just as important. By adding your voice you're adding to the culture as a whole.

• Charles Judson | June 25, 2012 10:35 AMReply

  If we want a stronger, more vibrant film culture we need folks like Vanessa busting ass. Great work and hopefully it will inspire more people to replicate her hard work, even on a local level.

• Darkan | June 25, 2012 10:21 AMReply

  Great work Vanessa!!! You rock!!! Kudos to you and God bless Shadow and Act for your love and dedication to black film and filmmakers established and up and coming. You are appreciated. See you on the circuit!!!

• Terri | June 25, 2012 5:41 PM

  right on, darkan. i f*cking love shadow and act. so good, so good.