Langston Hughes film festival gets huge

By Moira Macdonald

Seattle Times movie critic

Some film festivals grow slowly; others expand in sudden bursts. The latter is the case for the third annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, which this year jumps to nine days from last year's three. Forty films will unspool during the festival, which begins Saturday at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.

"I guess we just reached critical mass. The word got out!" said film curator Zola Mumford of the festival's rapid growth. "Everything's kind of come together. There's enough interest in the community to see something that goes beyond the stuff you see at the multiplex, something that doesn't have gangstas in it. People get tired of that.

"There's a lot of other kinds of movies out there — terrific new documentaries, people are doing a lot of great narrative and experimental work too. Why not try to show them all, in a community-performing-arts center that has a reputation going back for more than 30 years as a good home for black arts?"

The festival, which originally began on the impetus of Langston Hughes artistic director Jacqueline Moscou, is an outgrowth of the center's successful Underground Railroad film series. The series, which began in September and follows the metaphor of "safe houses" (havens for the historical underground movement which assisted escaped slaves seeking freedom), is a monthly screening of a film of interest to the African-American community. Each takes place at a different location — a private home, community organization, church or library. "We're hoping that audiences will follow us back to sanctuary, which is Langston Hughes," said Mumford.

The festival will include a large number of local films, visiting filmmakers and special events such as panel discussions. Opening night will be a celebration of local filmmaking. "3 Films 3 Visions" will showcase three short films made in the Seattle area: Winfield Ezell Jr.'s "Mary Jane," "Alen Blake's "Sometimes ... and Always in a Dream" and Bryan Johnson's "Swipe." The three filmmakers will also present a behind-the-scenes look at their work, as well as hosting a post-screening Q&A, to be followed by an opening-night reception.

A centerpiece event of the festival will be a tribute to photographer/filmmaker/novelist Gordon Parks, who died last month at the age of 93. The documentary "Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks" will screen at 7:30 p.m. Friday night, with director St. Clair Bourne on hand for a post-show discussion. This year's festival, notes Mumford, is dedicated to Parks' memory.

Closing night, on Sunday April 30, will feature "Daughter of the Wind," a Brazilian drama about two sisters and their daughters which begins in the present and travels back to the '60s and '70s. Filmmaker Joel Zito Araujo will be present for a post-show discussion. The film should make a fascinating double feature with Araujo's documentary "A Negação do Brasil," about black actors in Brazilian television soap operas, which also screens at 2 p.m. on the 30th.

Coming up

2006 Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Saturday-April 30 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, 104 17th Ave. S., Seattle. Tickets are $10 opening/closing night, $7 daily screenings, $5 students/seniors; all-festival pass $75. Tickets available through www.brownpapertickets.com, by calling 800-838-3006, or at the door day of show. For more information, see www.langstonblackfilmfest.org.

Other special events include an April 23 screening of the documentary "The Boys of Baraka," about a group of troubled Baltimore 12-year-olds who left home to attend an experimental boarding school in Kenya. It will be followed by a panel discussion. Director Barbara Allen will twice host screenings of her documentary "Paper Trail: 100 Years of the Chicago Defender," on April 24 and 25; the April 24 event will be followed by a panel discussion presented by Northwest Black Journalists. And director Keith A. Beauchamp will lead a Q&A after the April 25 screening of his documentary "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till," which presents new evidence in the 1955 lynching case.

Mumford, who has worked on all three festivals, cites the work of "some really dedicated community volunteers" in making the festival happen. She's part of a committee that has been screening films since September to put the schedule together. Though the films are not required to be made by black filmmakers, they must speak in some way to the diverse African-American community.

"There is content or character in each film that has something to do with black people and how black people are perceived," she said. The open policy toward filmmakers, she says, "opens up another level of conversation, and also shows a little more what real life is like — in the Pacific Northwest, there's always been a kind of dynamic interchange between communities."

Of the festival's offerings, she says, "There's something by and for everyone. Films made by teenagers, a lot of films made by women. We have a pretty broad spread. Some of the movies that we've brought to town may not come here again, unless you're taking a film class. That's also our mission: to work hard to find material that we know is going to be really engaging, entertaining, funny and challenging."