The four-day Charlotte Black Film Festival, which celebrates Black filmmakers and provides them with a platform connect with others in the industry, opens today.
About 40 films are expected to be screened, focusing on themes that include romance, thrillers and African American history. Filmmakers from across the country, from Texas to California, are expected to be part of this year’s event, which features categories that include animation, Black women in films, and the best of Historically Black Colleges and Universities films.
Tommy Nichols, the film festival's founder, says it’s important to highlight Black stories at a time when there’s political pressure to erase them.
“Some of those stories are going to deal with historical issues that some places they're taken out ... museums, and certain content about our history now is being deleted," Nichols said. "But the stories that we create, that are being submitted, deal with those stories. (We continue) to tell those stories.”
As part of the 15th annual Charlotte Black Film Festival, there will also be a screening of a film produced by Latino filmmakers that tells the story of two people in Charlotte.
"The Late Line" is a short film that focuses on two people who are both late to work, miss their train to uptown and start overthinking their lives. It was produced by about a dozen local Latino filmmakers.
A grant of approximately $125,000 provided by the city of Charlotte helped the Charlotte Black Film Festival fund films like "The Late Line" and other local film projects, with a focus on Charlotte’s Black and Latino communities.
The Charlotte Black Film Festival wraps up on Sunday with gospel performances. Tickets for the four-day event, and the schedule can be found here.
