11TH Annual Roxbury Film Festival Continues This Weekend At Venues Around Boston
BOSTON/Dudley Square and various other locations - A person only has one heart. But a city has multiple centers of life-giving blood. In Boston, known for its multiplicity of neighborhoods, one of those cultural organs beats at the Hibernian Hall in Dudley Square.
Home to ACT Roxbury - an arts, culture, and economic development program sponsored by theMadison Park Development Corporation - and the 11th Annual Roxbury Film Festival, the building was buzzing with activity this week as staff members prepared for the weekend line-up of film showings and special events.
One of those events will feature a presentation by actress and comedienne Marla Gibbs, most well known for her television portrayal of Florence Johnston on the popular sitcom “The Jeffersons” which ran from 1975 to 1985. Now 78 years old, Gibbs will introduce the new Robert Townsend and Quincy Newell documentary, “Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy;” based on the book by stand-up comedian Darryl Littleton. The documentary explores the rich history of the African-American experience in America and American comedy. Sunday’s 3pm showing at the Museum of Fine Arts will be the film’s New England premier.
Among the events and workshops scheduled is a talk by Bruce Smith, a Supervising Animator for Disney Studios who will discuss his work on the upcoming “The Princess and the Frog.” The film - slated for a December release - is a retro looking classic fairy tale set in 1920’s New Orleans and. features an African-American princess for the first time in the history of full-length Disney produced animated movies. A preview of the film will be shown during Smith’s presentation scheduled for the Regal Fenway Stadium 13 Theater on Sunday from 2 to 4pm.
Continuing a tradition of educating young and first time filmmakers, the Festival offers acting and screen writing workshops throughout the weekend.
For more than a decade, organizers of the Roxbury Film Festival have been offering a showcase for local artists and media-makers. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the festival’s sponsors from ACT Roxbury and The Color of Film Collaborative is their insistence that local and first-time filmmakers receive public exposure and promotion of their works.
Especially important, according to festival organizers, these films should say something about the conditions and circumstances of people of color living in Boston.
Business Is War
Friday night, this reporter saw Kemal Gordon’s “Business Is War,” a good example of local, socially conscious film making.
The plot of this feature, which stars professional and novice actors, revolves around Dennis “Dutty Sykes, a very successful street entrepreneur. During several voice-overs by the Dutty character - played with passion and intensity by Boston-born actor Christopher Chaun Bennett – he refers to this work as “hustling.”
But Dutty and his best friends Jimmy and Zookie (portrayed with sometimes over the top but mostly intelligent use of “street cred” attitude by Dennis Person and Wayne Stephens, respectively) are much more than hustlers, selfishly looking out for themselves. Oh, they love money all right – Zookie works as an enforcer and Jimmy sells pot out of his car - but as Director and writer Kemal Gordon paints them, they each bring much needed financial lubrication and capitalist legitimacy to parts of the city that for years have been ignored by city officials and business developers alike.
From a narrative point of view, the film is pure. Not simple, but crystalline, as the story traces Dutty’s life as it progresses from what Kemal Gordon referred to during a question and answer session following his film on Friday, as “the seedy world of the ghetto to the squeaky clean world of the corporation.” Of course, the irony, embedded in the film’s title, is that there’s a non-stop war for survival going on in Boston’s inner city neighborhoods and in the boardrooms and hallways of corporate America.
It may be unfair to the experience of people living in Boston’s neighborhoods to compare what happens during the day at work in financial district office buildings. But given the state of the economy, losing one’s job (and health insurance) could be perceived as part of a life and death struggle.
Gordon told the festival audience at MASS Art’s Tower Auditorium, that inspiration for “Business Is War” came from Paul Brickman’s “Risky Business.” The idea being to show the reverse (and Black oriented version) of the 1983 film’s antiseptic suburbs to dangerous prostitution theme.
The two films share something else: a malevolent force that permeates both movies that one never sees but feels throughout. Picture a vulture sitting atop a barren tree limb waiting for the juiciest moment to strike at the hero’s carcass. Both films, in their own ways, utilize the kinetic energy of the actors and pulsing soundtracks to build to an inexorable climax. But like “Risky Business,” “Business Is War” proves that human nature and the will to survive are powerful forces.
Interestingly, Director Gordon decides not to dwell on the racial differences between the two worlds so much as the similarities between people – white and black – who learn it’s necessary to be cutthroat at times in order to survive in these competitive environments.
He also chooses to feature women – specifically Dutty’s mom Ronesha, played by T. Whitlow and his co-worker Taylor played by Olivia Burnett, as powerful characters; influential on the men in their lives, but independent and complicated in their own right.
If I have a major criticism it’s technical rather than thematic. Some of the film’s audio is recorded in a way that makes it hard to understand the dialogue. I suspect the filmmakers were attempting to experiment with different recording techniques in order to bring a cinema-verite feel to certain scenes. But these 50 year old ears, at times, had difficulty understanding everything that was said.
Which is not to diminish the effort that went into making this film. Gordon, who suffered bouts of Lupus during the two years of principal shooting, also was involved in a car accident while on the way to one of his locations with several of his actors.
The budget for this film, said Gordon, was about $80 thousand; much of it raised by his parents who produced the film.
Again proving, that people, with enough drive and determination, and working cooperatively with skilled assistance, can create something profound if only given a chance.
"Business Is War" will be shown during the upcoming Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival as well as festivals in Atlanta, GA, and in South Africa. Gordon says he hopes the film will be available to the public sometime next year.
Update added August 3, 2009
On Sunday, at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Festival concluded with several funny films including "Why We Laugh: Black Comedians On Black Comedy," the new documentary by Director Robert Townsend and Producer Quincey Newell, and based on the book by Darryl Littleton.
This well constructed documentary features interviews with African-American comedians - young and old - plus a treasure trove of contemporary and archival film and video clips.
The filmmakers effectively portray the historical and cultural importance of many iconic performers; from minstrel players to Amos and Andy, to Moms Mabley, Red Foxx, Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson, Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, The Original Kings of Comedy, and many in between.
Townsend, well known for his much earlier documentary-like satirical feature, "Hollywood Shuffle," about black actors and stereotypes, keeps the pace of "Why We Laugh" moving quickly. He chooses his edited elements wisely; each featured comedian or scholar has much to contribute to the history of Black culture and many of them say outrageously funny things.
Producer and writer and Boston native Topper Carew (his long resume includes TV's "Martin") added a serious note during a short Q&A with the audience.
Carew, who continues to nurture young performers through his Urban Neo record label and film distribution business, related a meeting where several white studio executives simultaneously were having their shoes shined by African-American workers while discussing projects with Carew and comedian Robin Harris. The predominantly black audience sitting in the MFA audience reacted with knowing affirmation.
One major disappointment, for this reporter, is "Why We Laugh's" lack of analysis of the role radio played by broadcasting the comedy LP's of many of these performers. In 2007, Director Kasi Lemmons showed how influential radio can be in her film "Talk To Me." As a veteran community radio programmer myself, I can attest to the positive audience reaction whenever these records get played. Every time Townsend's camera lingered over pictures of a Red Foxx or Bill Cosby album, I found myself wishing he had spoken to some of the classic DJ's, white and black, who helped comedians reach large audiences and make money along the way. Even my favorite television disk jockey, Tim Reid of "WKRP" fame, doesn't make an appearance in the film.
That observation aside, this is a very, very good film that deserves wide distribution.
One of the featured shorts presented on Sunday, "Whistle and Snap," also is very funny. Written and produced by husband and wife team, Rick Younger and Vanessa Shealy, the 15 minute mockumentary features Younger and Marc Theobald as a "whistlist" and "snappist" jazz combo finding out they are being inducted into the "National Jazz Hall of Fame." Think "Spinal Tap" with lips and fingers instead of drums and guitars.
Another film that hopefully will be seen by a lot of people.
OMB was a little late to the showing and missed two other short comedies, "Parking Spot" and Donation."
Web Resource:
http://www.roxburyfilmfestival.org/new/
http://coloroffilm.com
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/news/article/qa_why_we_laugh_black_com...
http://www.youngerchildproductions.com/
http://www.annielukowski.com/Movie.html
