The Rhode Island Black Film Festival is Back This Month

The fourth event amplifies voices and visions of people of color in the film industry.
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Photograph courtesy of RIBFF.

The fourth Rhode Island Black Film Festival is back to amplify the voices and visions of people of color in the film industry. It also aims to inspire local college and high school students of color to consider careers in film. Ann-Allison Clanton, founder of RIBFF and owner of Ann Clanton Communications, brings together eighteen feature, short and documentary films for the virtual event from April 22 to 25. A $35 ticket includes a T-shirt and grants virtual access to all films throughout the four-day event, including the 2020 RIBFF Film of the Year Balloon Man, which will be virtually screened live with an online discussion with award-winning director Chantal Potter. The festival will launch on Thursday, April 22, at 5:30 p.m. with a virtual discussion with Rose Weaver and leading Black actors in the state, including Joe Wilson Jr. and Jackie Davis from Trinity Repertory Company and Ricardo Pitts-Wiley from Mixed Magic Theatre. Some of the films screened include Mama Africa (La Leyenda) from Finland/Germany/South Africa; Three Blades from Paris; and Sky Blossoms, directed by Richard Liu, an MSNBC reporter and news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News. “I think the film festival provides a much-needed distraction right now,” Clanton says. “We are providing so much content, participants don’t have to leave their homes, and they can also use this opportunity to discuss issues that are so relevant and of concern, such as health, racial and social justice equity, and the extraordinary economic disparity.” ribff.org