Art & Style
‘Queen Sugar’ Makes Mid-Season Debut, ‘Marshall’ Premieres and ‘Baltimore Rising’ Shines at 2017 Urbanworld Film Festival in New York
The Urbanworld Film Festival, now in its 21st year, once again showcased some of the best film and television programs featuring African-American actors, writers and directors.
This year’s festival featured the U.S. premiere of the Thurgood Marshall biopic Marshall, which stars Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K. Brown, Kate Hudson and Josh Gad. The premiere screening also included a panel moderated by journalist Tamron Hall, who led a discussion with the movie’s actors and director, Reginald Hudlin.
Held in New York at the AMC Empire 25 theater on 42nd Street, Urbanworld also included a showing of the mid-season premiere of OWN’s hit drama Queen Sugar, which is now in its second season. The mid-season debut was followed a panel discussion with cast members Rutina Wesley, Dawn-Lyen Gardner and Kofi Siriboe, director Julie Dash and Queen Sugar showrunner Ava DuVernay.
In addition to the high-profile movie and television premieres, the Urbanworld Film festival also included the showing of the buzzworthy documentary Baltimore Rising, which chronicles the challenges of activists, police offices and community leaders in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, who died a week after suffering a spinal injury while in Baltimore police custody in 2015. Baltimore Rising was directed by Wire actor Sonja Sohn.
Ernest Dickerson’s film, Double Play, which is based on the famous book by Frank Martinus Arion about love and deceit on the Caribbean island Curaçao, was one of the “spotlight” films at this year’s festival.
The Urbanworld Film Festival also featured an impressive list of short films, including a short by “Empire” actress Gabourey Sidibe, “The Tale of Four,” which is based on Nalo Hopkinson’s award-winning novel “Brown Girl in the Ring.”
This year’s festival also featured the premiere of several web originals, including “I Love Bekka and Lucy,” was written and directed by Rachael Holder.
In a display of the wide variety of films and television programs premiering, the 2017 Urbanworld Film Festival screened the BET scripted anthology series “Tales,” which is produced by music mogul Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo. In one episode, Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” is the backdrop for the show, which turns songs into mini-movies.
Started in 1997 by film industry executive Stacy Spikes as a way to provide a platform for minority filmmakers, actors, writers and directors to display their works in contemporary cinema, the Urbanworld Film Festival grew this year to more than 80 official selections, which represent a broad spectrum of stories, characters and cultures.
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