WTOP: The seventh annual D.C. Black Film Festival is returning to the Miracle Theatre on Barracks Row in Southeast.
Movies will screen in person on Friday, Aug. 18, and Saturday, Aug. 19, and then stream virtually through Aug. 30.
Founder and Festival Director Kevin Sampson told WTOP he’s excited because he feels “like it’s going to be getting back to what it was pre-COVID where people want to be out, they want to engage and make a festival what a festival is.”
“You can easily curate films on Netflix, on a streaming platform, but you can’t have strangers, friends and family come into a room and be entertained then have conversation after [like you can at a film festival],” Sampson said.
Friday’s lineup features the themed block “This is What You Came For,” including the unique film “Lab Rat,” which Sampson called “a groundbreaking interactive film.”
“As you come in, you’re going to scan on your phone this QR code. We’re going to watch the movie together and, at the same time, be able to make different choices, sort of a ‘choose your own adventure,’” Sampson said. “Depending on your answers, it’s going to tell you a lot about the people sitting next to you, so I can’t wait to see where it goes!”
Friday night brings the powerful themed block “Making Black Lives Matter Through Film,” including the film “Unexpected” directed by Zeberiah Newman and produced by Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”).
“It is an untold story of two heroes, Masonia and Ciarra, as they create an underground network of women helping women cope with and survive an HIV diagnosis in the rural South,” Sampson said.
According to Sampson, the subject matter touches on “something in the Black community that’s not talked about a lot,” — living with HIV.
“What does that look like? It’s just a nice, powerful, intimate story in which these two women are creating community and helping those going through it,” Sampson said.
Saturday includes “Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land,” directed by Eternal Polk ad produced by Al Roker.
“A few decades after the end of enslavement, Black Americans were able to amass millions of acres of farmland, but today approximately 90% of that land is no longer in Black hands,” Sampson said. “There’s definitely different factors, but this documentary really takes a look at Heirs’ Property and how that is having a devastating effect.”
Sunday brings the themed block “For the Culture,” including “The Orchestra Chuck Built” by Christopher Stoudt.
“In 2016, the League of American Orchestras conducted a study that revealed a shocking statistic: only 1.8% of the professional orchestra workforce in the U.S. is Black,” Sampson said. “From an old church recording room in the inner city of Los Angeles, a lawyer turned conductor, Chuck Dickerson, is trying to change that, so the documentary focuses on this orchestra that Chuck has built up. It’s just really one of those heartwarming stories.”
Sunday night brings the themed block “The District,” highlighting D.C.-centric films and filmmakers.
“It’s going to be one of those things where D.C. comes out and represents, it’s going to be loud in the theater, it’s going to be packed, it’s going to be fun,” Sampson said.
He said one of the films, “A Chocolate Lens,” tells the story of Steven Cummings, “who takes a photographic journey through a disappearing Black Washington” and “has really been able to photograph that gentrification over time of Washington, D.C.”
The festival closes with the sports documentary “Outside Line,” directed by Jack Gordon.
“It focuses on Rajah Caruth, who is a NASCAR race driver, who at the time was 19 years old,” Sampson said. “We have ‘Gran Turismo’ coming out,’ and he started out gaming, then he made that transition over to actually becoming a NASCAR driver, one of the few Black NASCAR drivers. Not only that, he’s young, he’s in college, he’s balancing all of these things, so it’s just a really fun documentary to watch.”
He hopes D.C., Maryland and Virginia residents make it out this weekend to experience a range of emotions.
“These films are seriously going to make you laugh, cry, maybe even throw popcorn in the theater,” Sampson said. “I know the Miracle staff will not appreciate that, so let’s not get too buckwild, but it’s going to be a really good time.”
