The annual outdoor independent film festival, Under the Stars at Clark Park, is returning this spring with four screenings scheduled for May, June and July. The festival, hosted by West Philly-based cinema cinéSPEAK, features city premieres of independent films from around the world, plus local DJs, food trucks and other activities. All events are free to attend.

Screenings take place on Fridays or Saturdays at 9 p.m. through July 9 (weather-permitting). The pre-show starts at 7:30 p.m.

The festival was scheduled to kick off on May 20, but the opening night was postponed due to rain. Here is the schedule for this Friday (May 27): Continue Reading

The sixth BlackStar Film Festival, the annual showcase of independent black filmmakers, will take place from Thursday, August 3rd to Sunday, August 6th at venues around West Philly.

This year’s venues include the Institute of Contemporary Art, World Cafe Life, Lightbox Film Center, and Pearlstein Gallery of Drexel University as well as Fishtown’s Johnny Brenda’s.

The event celebrates storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and global indigenous communities through work by black filmmakers.

In addition to feature documentaries and narratives, there will be several sessions featuring short films at the festival. On the opening day (Thursday, Aug. 3) at 3:50 p.m., the Shorts Program will include black enuf*, an “animated documentary exploring racial identity,” according to its website.  Continue Reading

Fast and loose: that’s how the Sloppy Film Fest wants your flicks, West Philly artists.

Organized by Project Arts Executive Director Rich Wexler, Val Sowell, and Jessica Marcus, the 2013 Sloppy Film Fest is currently accepting short film submissions until October 27. The “quick and dirty” homemade flicks can be about any subject, a new or old project, and should be experimental. The suggestion length for the flicks is five minutes and should not surpass 10 minutes (although longer shorts may be reconsidered). “The idea is to promote DIY filmmaking,” Wexler said of Sloppy Film Fest, which has been held on and off for the last 15 years.

Since kids are welcomed at the Project Arts-sponsored DIY movie carnival, artists should be able to rate their films appropriately using PG, PG 13 and XXX ratings, so organizers can show the legitimately dirty films towards the end. Films in DVD, VHS, and online formats will be accepted.

All submissions sent before the October 27 deadline will be reviewed, with those selected notified via email if they’re to show during the free 2013 Sloppy Film Festival taking place November 8 from 10:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. at Dahlak Paradise, 4706 Baltimore Avenue. Compensation, however, is not being offered for submissions, and some registered films may not be shown during the event.

In the meantime, make sure to stop by The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, on Friday, October 4 for a special double screening of Alan Menkin’s Little Shop of Horrors (Director’s Cut) to benefit Project Arts’ upcoming production of “Avenue Q School Edition”. Sponsored by The Rotunda and Touch Me Philly, the screenings will take place at 7 p.m., featuring a talk by local puppeteer Steve Abrams, who worked on Little Shop; and 9:30 p.m., with special guests Cadavera and Stabigall of Touch Me Philly Productions LLC leading the sing-a-long and interactive portions of the screening, and featuring music by Suggestical Musical Improv. The suggestion donation is $5 to $20 to attend.

To submit your sloppy film, visit this page. For questions, email: sloppyfilmfest@gmail.com.

–Annamarya Scaccia

Books Through Bars, a renowned West Philadelphia non-profit that makes educational resources and programming available to prisoners who are trying to improve themselves and change during their time inside, is hosting a film festival this week at different venues around West Philly to commemorate its 20th anniversary.

The festival features 17 films stretched across six evenings, Dec. 5 through Dec. 12. Each night will include a brief introduction from local organizers and activists who will connect the films to local issues.

Light refreshments – popcorn and cider – will be available for purchase, as will the Books Through Bars 20th Anniversary commemorative poster designed and printed by Eric Ruin (see left, click to enlarge), which is really (really) cool. Proceeds will go toward Books Through Bars’ ongoing work.

The film schedule is below. The venues and times change, so be alert. The Dec. 12th edition, for example, is a matinee.

Wednesday, Dec. 8
WOMEN IN PRISON
7:30 PM @ West Philly Acupuncture, 50th & Baltimore (above Dock St. Pub)
Introduction by Naima Black, from MoMobile (& former lead organizer of the AFSC StopMax Campaign)
Featured films:
Charisse Shumate: Fighting for Our Lives, 2004, 37 min
An examination of the conditions of medical neglect facing women prisoners in the CA system, seen through the lens of Shumate’s efforts to bring a class action lawsuit forward to improve her own and other’s circumstances.
Eyes of the Rainbow, 1997, 45 min
An unusual doc on Assata Shakur, filmed primarily in Cuba, and narrated by fellow political exile Nehanda Abioudon
OUT: The Making of a Revolutionary, 2000, 60 min
A portrait of the life and actions of former political prisoner and current prison activist Laura Whitehorn.

Thursday, Dec. 9
IMMIGRATION DETENTION: The Racialized Face of U.S. Incarceration
7:30 PM @ Cindergarden, 4823 Baltimore Ave.
Introduction by Mia-lia Kiernan, Cambodian Community Organizer
Featured Films:
Exiled in America, 10 min
Uses the portrait of a single family’s experience to highlight the current landscape of immigrant detention and deportation in the U.S.
I Won’t Drown on That Levee & You Ain’t Gonna Break My Back, directed by Ashley Hunt, 2006, 31 min
Looks at the impact of the police state on New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, as well as the conditions faced by prisoners held in New Orleans Prison Parish at the time of the levee break.
The Least of These: Family Detention in America, 2008, 60 min
Story of the Don Hutto Family Detention Center in Texas, run by the Corrections Corp of America (CCA) and the legal/community efforts to contest conditions there.

Friday, Dec. 10
YOUTH INCARCERATION: The School to Prison Pipeline
7:30 PM @ A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave
Introduction by Members of the Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP), whose film “Stolen Dreams” will be one of the featured pieces this evening.
Featured Films:
Books Through Bars, produced by Media That Matters, 4 min. A brief piece that draws connections between the increasing criminalization of youth in general, particularly in the context of the public school system, and the juvenile prison system.System Failure, produced by Media That Matters, 8 min. A critical portrait of the California Youth Authority System
Stolen Dreams, 2010, 26 min
A look at the local Philadelphia/Pennsylvania landscape of youth incarceration and its costs, produced by Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project
CCJT$: At What cost?, 2004, 26 min
An examination of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, a max facility for youth, produced by Youth Rights Media

Saturday, Dec. 11 – Double Feature!!
POLITICAL PRISONERS: In the U.S. and Internationally
6 PM & 8 PM @ A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave
Introduction by Dan Berger, Wild Poppies Collective (6 PM) and David Anthem, BTB (8 PM)
Featured Films:
Through The Wire, directed by Nina Roseblum, 1990, 77 min
An expose of conditions at an underground isolation cellblock constructed at the Federal Corrections Institute in Lexington, KY to house three well-known female political prisoners of the anti-imperialist and Puerto Rican independence movements.
Hunger, directed by Steve McQueen, 2008, 96 min
An intimate cinematic exploration of the conditions faced by IRA prisoners in England’s prisons and, in particular, Bobby Sand’s death during the hunger strikes orchestrated to resist that environment.

Sunday, Dec. 12
THE PRISON ECONOMY
2 PM @ A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave
Introduction by Emily Abendroth, BTB
Featured Films:
Excerpt from The Farm: Angola, USA, 1998, 10 min
In its entirety, this film focuses on the lives, stories, and cases of six different men incarcerated in Angola prison. We will be looking at just a single clip of one of those men’s appearance before the Angola parole board.
Excerpt from The Last Slave Plantation and the Angola 3, 2006, 45 min
A look at the history, legacy, and ongoing resistance struggles to current conditions at Angola Prison in Louisiana – narrated by Mumia Abu Jamal.
Prison Town, USA, directed by Po Kutchins & Katie Galloway, 2008, 75 min
Looks at Susanville, CA’s current incarnation as a “prison town,” wherein half of the adults residing there work at one of the area’s three massive prisons.