2016 LA Film Festival Selections Featuring and Directed By Black Talent
Posted by Wilson Morales
June 1, 2016
The Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) starts today from June 1-9. Now reaching its 22nd year, LAFF is a premier platform for new works from emerging and established independent storytellers with unique voices and innovative visions. Created by Film Independent, their mission is to support diverse artists and to diversify the industry. With the slate of films chosen for this year’s lineup, they have moved closer to accomplishing that exact goal. Organizers say that 43% of the films in this year’s festival were directed by women and 38% were directed by people of color. They especially helped to increase diversity in film this year by highlighting a wide-range of African American Cinema. The below films range from stories about love and loss in a gentrified Brooklyn to facing dangerously epic missions just to get a stolen pair of Jordan’s back from the local gang.
African American coming of age stories about love, growth, and self-identity include 72 HOURS: A BROOKLYN LOVE STORY?, KICKS, A MOVING IMAGE, AND DREAMSTATES. Each of these films shed a different light on the ways in which young African Americans have to face real-world conflicts such as love, loss, gentrification, discrimination, and self-identity.
Stories of African American women overcoming adversity include FREE CECE!, THE HOUSE ON COCO ROAD, JACKSON, WOVEN, and JEAN OF THE JONESES. Each of these films shed a different light on the ways in which women were discriminated against or difficult situations they were placed in that they had to learn to overcome.
Stories of African American athletes and the injustices they face include MANCHILD: THE SCHEA COTTON STORY and OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE. Each of these films focuses on young African Americans athletes who have faced real-world conflicts and discrimination in their sport.
Film Independent Spirit Award winner and LA Film Festival alum Ryan Coogler (Creed) will be honored as the 2016 Festival’s Guest Director. Coogler’s Fruitvale Station appeared at the festival in 2013 and later won Best First Feature at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Coogler will attend Film Independent’s Filmmaker Retreat—an annual event which brings each year’s feature category directors together with high-profile mentors and selected Film Independent Board Members for a community-building event prior to the official start of the 2016 Festival.
Selma director Ava DuVernay, along with her innovative distribution shingle Array Releasing, will receive the festival’s annual Spirit of Independence Award, which recognizes members of the independent film community who “advance the cause of independent film and champion creative freedom.”
Buzz Selections
Don’t Think Twice – USA (dir./writ. Mike Birbiglia; prod. Mike Birbiglia, Ira Glass, Miranda Bailey, Amanda Marshall; feat. Gillian Jacobs, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Birbiglia, Kate Micucci, Chris Gethard, Tami Sagher) – The unbreakable bonds of a struggling improv group are put to the test when they lose their performance space and one of them lands a coveted spot on the Holy Grail of all comedy shows. LA Premiere
Jean of the Joneses – Canada/USA (dir./writ. Stella Meghie; prod. Amos Adetuyi, Stella Meghie, Floyd Kane; feat. Taylour Paige, Sherri Shepherd, Erica Ash, Gloria Reuben, Michelle Hurst, Mamoudou Athie, Francois Arnaud, Anna Hopkins, Demore Barnes) – When the estranged patriarch of the Jones family abruptly drops dead on their doorstep, sharp-witted Jean Jones takes the opportunity to stir up a boiling pot of familial dysfunctions that distracts her from an unraveling love life and stalled writing career. LA Premiere
Kicks – USA (dir. Justin Tipping; writ. Joshua Beirne-Golden; prod. David Kaplan; feat. Jahking Guillory, Christopher Meyer, CJ Wallace, Kofi Siriboe, Mahershala Ali) – After getting his dream pair of Air Jordans snatched, Brandon and his friends go on a dangerously epic mission through Oakland to get them back in this vibrant coming-of-age story bursting with magical realism. LA Premiere
Life, Animated – USA (dir. Roger Ross Williams; prod. Roger Ross Williams, Julie Goldman) – Based on Ron Suskind’s best-selling book, Life, Animated tells the remarkable story of how Owen found in Disney animation a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world. By evocatively interweaving classic Disney sequences with verite scenes from Owen’s life, the film explores how identification and empathy with characters like Simba, Jafar, and Ariel forge a conduit for him to understand his feelings and interpret reality.
Roger Ross Williams is the director of God Loves Uganda and Music by Prudence, which won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and became the first African American to win an Academy Award for directing or producing a film (short or feature). LA Premiere
Limelight Selections
FREE CeCe! – USA (dir. Jacqueline Gares; writ. Laverne Cox, Jacqueline Gares; prod. Laverne Cox) – CeCe McDonald survived a brutal attack, only to be incarcerated for defending her life. After an international movement to free her, CeCe emerges as a leader to interrogate the prison industrial complex and inspire women to fight back when attacked. World Premiere
A Hundred Streets – UK (dir. Jim O’Hanlon; writ. Leon Butler; prod. Leon Butler, Pippa Cross, Idris Elba, Ros Hubbard; feat. Idris Elba, Gemma Arterton, Charlie Creed-Miles, Franz Drameh, Kierston Wareing, Tom Cullen, Ken Stott) – Inspired by the streets of contemporary London, the lives of the wife of an ex-Rugby superstar, a small time drug dealer, a rich playboy and a cab driver intersect. World Premiere
Opening Night – Mexico/USA (dir. Isaac Rentz; writ. Gerry De Leon, Gregory Lisi; prod. Daniel Posada, Jason Tamasco, Topher Grace, Alex Garcia; feat. Topher Grace, Taye Diggs, Anne Heche, Alona Tal, JC Chasez, Rob Riggle, Lesli Margherita, Paul Scheer, Lauren Lapkus, Brian Husky) – A musical comedy centered on a failed Broadway singer turned production manager who must save the show on opening night by wrangling his eccentric cast and crew before they wreak havoc. World Premiere
So B. It – USA (dir. Stephen Gyllenhaal; writ. Garry Williams; prod. Todd Harris, Orien Richman; feat. Talitha Bateman, Alfre Woodard, John Heard, Jessica Collins, Jacinda Barrett, Dash Mihok, Cloris Leachman) – Based on The New York Times best-selling young adult novel, a twelve-year-old travels alone across the country to unravel the mysteries of her and her mentally disabled mother’s past. World Premiere
The lineup for the US Fiction Competition:
72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story? – USA (DIRECTOR Raafi Rivero WRITERS Raafi Rivero, Bilal N’Dongo PRODUCERS Vincent Harris, Stephanie Williams CAST Melvin Mogoli, Andrea Rachel Parker, Erinn Westbrook, Bilal N’Dongo, David Shaw, Enrique Miller, Khadim Diop) – A charismatic teen is thrown into a crisis of life and love when he must decide whether to leave his rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn community to pursue a prestigious academic scholarship. World Premiere
Destined – USA (DIRECTOR/WRITER Qasim Basir PRODUCERS Tommy Oliver, Rick Rosenthal, Matt Ratner CAST Cory Hardrict, Jesse Metcalfe, Margot Bingham, Robert Christopher Riley, Jason Dohring, Zulay Henao, Hill Harper, Lala Anthony, Mo McCrae) – A man navigates parallel realities: one as a hardened criminal who has spent years building his drug empire; the other as an ambitious architect who has been working his way up the corporate ladder. World Premiere
Dreamstates – USA/France/Rwanda (DIRECTOR/ WRITER Anisia Uzeyman PRODUCERS Maripol, Dave Guenette, Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams, Annie Maurette, Neptune Frost, Mai Lucas CAST Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman, Beau Sia, William Nadylam, CX KIDTRONIK, Guillermo Brown, Julien Chirol, Zach Prewitt, Mervin Sealy Sr.) – Created in collaboration with Saul Williams, this non-linear tale is about two wayward souls discovering their love for one another, as reality and fiction blur on a tour across the United States with pivotal figures of the Afro-Punk movement. World Premiere
GREEN / is / GOLD – USA (DIRECTOR/ WRITER Ryon Baxter PRODUCERS Anthony Burns, Ryon Baxter CAST Jimmy Baxter, Ryon Baxter, David Fine, Liz Clare, Shelley Mitchell) – After his father goes to prison, a wayward tween has nowhere to live except with his high school dropout brother, who is building—at all costs—a marijuana business. World Premiere
Woven – USA (DIRECTORS Salome Mulugeta, Nagwa Ibrahim WRITERS Salome Mulugeta, Ryan Spahn, Kristin Hanggi PRODUCERS Salome Mulugeta, Nagwa Ibrahim, Ryan Spahn CAST Salome Mulugeta, Ryan O’Nan, Alemtsehay Wodajo, Larisa Polonsky, Ryan Spahn, Vincent Agnello, Mickey Macras, Tibebe Solomon Borga, Mona Ibrahim) – When a mysterious crime takes the life of her only brother, an Ethiopian-American woman searches for the truth behind his death, while struggling to reconcile cultural expectations with her own pursuit of self-identity and love. World Premiere
Documentary Competition
Dying Laughing – UK (DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS Lloyd Stanton, Paul Toogood) – Riveting interviews lend insight into the creative craft of comedy and the psychology behind some of the world’s greatest stand-ups, including Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Jamie Foxx, Steve Coogan, Billy Connolly and Amy Schumer. World Premiere
The House on Coco Road – Grenada/USA (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER Damani Baker WRITERS Damani Baker, Jon Fine, Eisa Davis, Cameron Russell) – An activist and teacher abandons the racial violence permeating Oakland in the 1960’s in pursuit of the utopic possibilities of Grenada’s revolution—only to put her family in harm’s way during a brutal invasion by the U.S. military. World Premiere
Jackson – USA (DIRECTOR Maisie Crow PRODUCERS Maisie Crow, Jamie Boyle) – A single mother, an abortion clinic director and fervent pro-lifer lay bare their stakes in the fight of one of the last remaining abortion clinics to stay open against the pro-life movement’s efforts to make abortions illegal in the Deep South. World Premiere
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice – USA (DIRECTOR/ WRITER Deborah Riley Draper, PRODUCERS Deborah Riley Draper, Blair Underwood, Amy Tiemann, Michael A. Draper) – Follow the historic story of 18 African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, undermining the fallacy of Aryan supremacy and exposing the hypocrisy of life under Jim Crow laws in the U.S. During the games, they experienced things they were not expecting such as warm welcomes and integrated Olympic villages, but returned home to a short-lived glory where they are considered second class citizens and treated as such. World Premiere
World Fiction Competition (6)
Unique fiction films from around the world from emerging and established filmmakers, especially curated for LA audiences.
Like Cotton Twines – USA/Ghana (DIRECTOR/WRITER Leila Djansi PRODUCERS Amanda Marshall, Akofa Djankui, Whitney Valcin, Dave Harper, Leila Djansi CAST Jay Ellis, Ophelia Dzidzornu, Miranda Bailey, Yvonne Okoro, Luckie Lawson, David Dontoh) – An African-American volunteer accepts a teaching job in a remote Ghanaian village and is ensnared in a battle between tradition and freedom when he is compelled to save one of his students from becoming a slave to the gods. World Premiere
A Moving Image – UK (DIRECTOR/WRITER Shola Amoo PRODUCER Rienkje Attoh CAST Tanya Fear, Hussina Raja, Yinka Oyewole, Aki Omoshaybi, Alex Austin, Yrsa Daley Ward) – Reality and fiction merge in this personal reflection on gentrification in Brixton, told from the perspective of a sincere, yet stifled, young artist who struggles with her own complicity as she confronts the changing landscape of her South London neighborhood. World Premiere
Play the Devil – Trinidad, Bahamas, USA (DIRECTOR/WRITER Maria Govan PRODUCER Abigail Hadeed CAST Petrice Jones, Gareth Jenkins, Akil Nicholas, Penelope Spencer) – Set against the backdrop of Trinidad and Tobago’s mystical Carnival, a gifted and struggling young man becomes the object of intrigue for an older, well-meaning businessman until their worlds collide. World Premiere
LA Muse Section (fiction and documentary films that capture the spirit of L.A.
Manchild: The Schea Cotton Story – USA (DIRECTOR Eric “Ptah” Herbert WRITERS Michael Landers, Eric “Ptah” Herbert PRODUCERS Dr. Howard Mango, Eric “Ptah” Herbert, Oscar “Cali” Quiroz, Mack Tompkins, Jason Hart, Marcus Gradney, Schea Cotton) – One of the biggest mysteries in basketball’s history is why Los Angeles legend Schea Cotton, one of the most highly touted high school athletes of a pre-social media era, never made it to the NBA. A star studded documentary where athletes like Scoop Jackson, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Tyson Chandler, Jason Hart, and Elton Brand help tell the story of what really happened. World Premiere