Started by Speller Street Films and The Luminal Theater, BLK Docs is an initiative to help build an authentic documentary film culture within the African-American community through film screenings, webinars, and more interactive film events. Our ongoing virtual screenings are in partnership with FilmFestivalFlix.
September 23, 2021
UNAPOLOGETIC
directed by Ashley O'Shea
Meet Janaé and Bella, two fierce abolitionists whose upbringing and experiences shape their activism and views on Black liberation. Through their lens, “Unapologetic” provides an inside look into the ongoing movement work that transformed Chicago, from the police murders of Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald to the election of mayor Lori Lightfoot.
JANAÉ BONSU, 24, moves from South Carolina to Chicago committed to pursuing her PHD in social work. However, in the midst of all of the trauma surrounding state and intra-community violence, the movement calls her for a higher purpose.
Meanwhile, in the heart of the city, a loudspeaker closely follows Chicago-native BELLA BAHHS, 22, at a protest as she proclaims, “this is Black history that we are making! Even if we don’t, our stories gon’ make it!” The crowd erupts. Soon after, a video of this performance goes viral, changing her presence both within and outside her Chicago community. She is thrust to the forefront of the Movement as an artist-activist. Internally, however, Bella grapples with the recent death of her grandmother, her primary caretaker while her parents were incarcerated.
Throughout the film, we see how movement actions play out in the landscape of Chicago's city politics. After a slew of protests, some with deep wins for the organizing community, our characters continue fighting deep, personal battles including risking hard-sought careers, familial struggles within the criminal justice system, and discord within the organizing community.
Can Janaé and Bella separate the movement from their personal lives and begin to ask - in a Trump-era America - what does a sustainable lifestyle look like for both their community and their own well being?
Live screening at
Spotlight Cinemas Capital 8
201 Columbia Mall Boulevard
Columbia, SC, 29223
TICKETS
This program is sponsored by South Carolina Humanities, a not-for-profit organization; inspiring, engaging and enriching South Carolinians with programs on literature, history, culture and heritage. It is also sponsored in part by the Carolina Film Network, a nonprofit organization that exists to bridge the gap between industry professionals and growing artists by way of networking and education in the film industry.
April 8th-9th, 2021
DIGGING FOR WELDON IRVINE
directed by Victorious De Costa
Who is Weldon Irvine? He’s perhaps the most creative writer/pianist/arranger/composer you’ve probably never heard of. But with his deep influence on the Black Arts Movement, the evolution of hip-hop, and the development of some of the most well-known figures in modern jazz, “Digging For Weldon Irvine” explores how prolific the man who penned Nina Simone’s electrifying civil rights anthem “Young, Gifted and Black” was, and how relentlessly he strived to reinvent himself within an unforgiving and seldomly reciprocal industry.
This April 9th marks the 19th anniversary of Irvine's unfortunate death, but we celebrate his life with this screening.
Tickets at FilmFestivalFlix
August 9th Q&A: Victorious De Costa & executive producer/jazz musician Joey “G-Clef” Cavaseno, moderated by culture critic Shannon Ali
watch via BLK Docs YouTube channel
November 2020
INSTANT ANCESTRY:
Home & History Through The Black Archive
in partnership with Maysles Documentary Center
Drawing on a wide range of archival material, these filmmakers attempt to cohere questions of Black identity that have been obscured, suppressed, or erased by white supremacy and other dominative forces.
Revealing a tension between what’s been captured and, more tellingly, what’s been excluded, these films move seamlessly between personal and political—between family albums, home movies, text correspondences, official documents, news clips, historical footage, and advertisements; they render the archive as a site of both presence and absence.
watch INSTANT ANCESTRY
Nov. 13th through Nov. 26th
featuring
“Meditation on Migration” by Vonnie Quest
“Movie Tote” by Ephraim Asili
“All That You Can’t Leave Behind” by Ufuoma Essi
“I’ll Finish When I Can” by Cat Jones
“King of Sanwi” by Akosua Adoma Owusu
“Halimuhfack” by Christopher Harris
“Dancing In the Absence of Pain” by Terence Price II
And RSVP to join us for the November 17th Q&A with select filmmakers
See full program description HERE
EXTRA SPECIAL: Don’t miss our special one-night only opening night presentation of The Otolith Group’s In The Year Of The Quiet Sun on Friday, November 13th at 7pm - tix available HERE
August 2020
BACK TO NATURAL
directed by Gillian Scott-Ward, PhD
The shocking truth about the intersection of hair, politics, and racial identity in Black communities is revealed in this documentary, inspired by New York City-based clinical psychologist Gillian Scott-Ward’s clinical practice work and her drive to go natural. This call for healing also serves as an exploration of the globalized policing of natural Black hair while equally celebrating Black history and how natural Black hairstyles are taking the world by storm.
August 27th Q&A: Gillian Scott-Ward, Okema T. Moore, Prof. Wendy Greene, Adjoa B. Asamoah
moderated by Charlon Turner
Q&A interview via Facebook
August 31st Q&A: Gillian Scott-Ward, Candice Straughter, Curtis Caesar John
moderated by Meleisha Edwards
hosted by The Belcourt Theatre and Nashville Scene's Living Room Film Club
July 2020
MILES IN THE LIFE - The Story of a BMF Drug Trafficker
directed by Shaun Mathis
Jabari Hayes used the cover of an Atlanta limousine driver to traffic large quantities of cocaine across the country for the then largest African American drug organization in America (1999-2007) known as Black Mafia Family (BMF). This is that story, and the story of Jabari’s redemption.
Narrated by award-winning actor Clifton Powell ("Ray", "Friday After Next", CW's "Black Lightning"
July 30th Q&A: Jabari Hayes & Shaun Mathis in conversation with Victor Dempsey
Q&A interview via Facebook
August 5th Q&A: BLK Docs founders Christopher Everett & Curtis Caesar John, moderated by Dennis Leroy Kangalee
Q&A interview via Facebook
June 2020
WILMINGTON ON FIRE
directed by Christopher EverettIn 1898 in Wilmington, NC, an armed mob of Democrat-backed white supremacists opened fire on thriving middle-class African-American neighborhoods, slaughtering hundreds and exiling thousands out of the city for good. Now, using rare photographs, original research, and testimonies from the descendants of the victims, the truth is finally revealed on how the Wilmington Massacre became the springboard for white supremacy and Jim Crow throughout the United States, and how the devastation still affects Black American life to this day.
June 25th Q&A : Christopher Everett in conversation with actress/producer Erika Alexander
Q&A interview via Facebook
June 30th Q&A: author/scholar Larry Reni Thomas in conversation
with Camille Kauer, host/producer of The E-Spot
video begins at 22:00 min mark
Contact
Have a question about who we are, what we do, or how we do it?
Feel free to reach out to us.
email: BlkDocs20@gmail.com
+1 (347) 560-3379
Testimonials
— JoAnn H.
Thank you for teaching me."
— Jamie H.
— Dennis. K.
