The San Francisco Black Film Festival “Healing the World One Film At A Time” Extended “Virtually” Through August 30 with Live Events and New Collaborations!

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, July 17, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Amid the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the multicultural San Francisco Black Film Festival is screening films from around the world virtually at www.sfbff.org with live events from Atlanta, Georgia to Durban South Africa, now through August 30, 2020.

“Over 200 films will be available to our audiences as we post daily to our website sfbff.org,” said Kali O’Ray, Festival Co-Director with his wife Katera Crossley. We are celebrating twenty-two years of bringing films from the African Diaspora from around the world to San Francisco to create positive dialogue between people about universal human experiences.”

“As we collaborate with artists and friends in Atlanta and Durban, South Africa, we will be adding live events through our “Live Talk @ SFBFF program to share with our San Francisco Bay Area audience and people from around the world,” said Katera Crossley, Co-Director of San Francisco Black Film Festival.

An upcoming “Live Talk @ SFBFF on “Art and Trade in Africa ” will include panelists discusses art and the art of doing business in South Africa. The trailer of the film “Sankofa…Connecting the Dots” by award-winning independent filmmaker Damon Jamal, based on the historic California Black Chamber of Commerce visit to the City of Durban’s Essence Durban Festival in November 2016, will start the discussion. Mrs. Mathabo Kunene, Executive Director of the Kunene Foundation that focuses on the writings of her late husband, UCLA Professor Mazisi Kunene, who was also late President Nelson Mandela’s first poet laureate of South Africa, will reinforce her consistent message for U.S. Blacks, especially Californians with its history of helping to defeat apartheid, should “participate in South Africa’s Economic Growth.” Answering Mrs. Kunene’s call to action, San Diego’s Jennifer White, the founder of “Roots and Vines,” a newly created importer of wines by Black female vintners in South Africa will discuss her startup company. The free Live Talk @SFBFF program will be July 25th at 12 noon.

Additionally, Live Talk @SFBFF will give festival fans an opportunity to observe exceptional excerpt readings of new play “Riot!” by actor, playwright and longtime Pan African Film Festival member, Micah Penn. The play completed in 2019 is timely in that it examines the 1906 Atlanta Riots through the eyes of historic figures like W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Henry W. Grady and other Black and White leaders. At the dawn of the new century, White mobs rampaged against Black businesses and neighborhoods leaving up to 40 Black people and two Whites dead. Penn’s “Déjà vu” examination of the ashes of the Phoenix City, Atlanta is compelling. “Riot!” is just the type of material for great storytelling and ultimately a great screenplay as described by Live Talk @SFBFF inaugural guest, Manns-Mackie Studios CEO, Ty Manns. The tabletop reading of excerpts of “Riot!” will include a panel discussion in light of the recent troubled race relations in Atlanta and the United States. Join the discussion as Penn’s “Riot!” remembers forgotten history to shed light to forge a better future. The live event emanating from Atlanta will be August 8th at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time and 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Visit www.sfbff.org for details.

The virtual San Francisco Black Film Festival XXII has a variety of independent films from drama to comedy through August 30th. Check the website frequently for updates on programs and collaborations with the Durban Film Mart and Durban International Film Festival that due to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic, will be virtual September 10 through September 20th.

The San Francisco Black Film Festival sponsors to date include: San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Commission, Bill Graham Productions, Mayor London Breed, Key to the City of San Francisco, KPOO, KPFA, San Francisco BayView Newspaper, The Boom Boom Room, New Community Leadership Foundation, Inc., LaHitz Media, Film Bread, and Wright Enterprises.

Once again, The San Francisco Black Film Festival has joined forces with the National Coalition of 100 Black Women San Francisco Chapter's Doris Ward Workforce Development Training and Employment Program. Festival training participants are given opportunities in the area of customer service, media relations, and public relations. The National Coalition of 100 Black Women San Francisco Chapter and the San Francisco Black Film Festival thank InterEthnica, a multicultural Marketing & Design Firm that funded this year’s program participants’ stipends.

Increase your company or organization’s social responsibility capital by sponsoring the “Virtually, Possible” San Francisco Black Film Festival XXII. Contact San Francisco Black Film Festival representative, Jackie Wright at jackiewright@wrightnow.biz or call 415 525 0410 for available sponsorship opportunities.

For more information about San Francisco Black Film Festival XXII, visit www.sfbff.org.

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About San Francisco Black Film Festival
Ave Montague (1945-2009), arts impresario, fashion industry executive, publicist, founded the San Francisco Black Film Festival in 1998. Montague created the San Francisco Black Film Festival, a nonprofit, with the artistic vision to provide a platform for Black filmmakers, screenwriters, and actors to present their art. As a competitive film festival, SFBFF identifies filmmakers, screenwriters, and actors that are emerging as talents and established artists who are of all races and contributors to the cinematic legacy of African Americans.

SFBFF conscientiously expands the notions of “Black film-making” to a global perspective. The organization is multicultural and inclusive of all in the expression of the African Diaspora experience.

The San Francisco Black Film Festival has screened more than 10,000 films from around the world. Kali O’Ray (son of Ave Montague) and his wife Katera Crossley, both formerly of Atlanta, Georgia are co-directors of The San Francisco Black Film Festival.

The Mission of the San Francisco Black Film Festival is to celebrate African American cinema and the African Cultural Diaspora and to showcase a diverse collection of films – from emerging and established filmmakers. This is accomplished by presenting Black films, which reinforce positive images and dispel negative stereotypes, and providing film artists of all races from the Bay Area in particular and around the world in general, a forum for their work to be viewed and discussed.

Jackie Wright
Wright Enterprises
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