‘Green light yourself.’ Miami film festival promotes up-and-coming Black filmmakers

When Jeff Friday first attended Sundance Film Festival in 1997, he immediately noticed a lack of diversity.

To Friday, it was unimaginable — the idea that Black and brown filmmakers had been left out of one of the premiere film festivals in the world could not be a coincidence. Although many would argue not much has changed, Hollywood simply did not recognize the value of diverse storytellers as the #OscarsSoWhite movement of 2016 and the racial reckoning of 2020 were still nearly two decades away. Nowhere was that more apparent than award season: Black artists still hadn’t won Oscars for best actress in a leading role or best picture.

So Friday decided to create the opportunity and in mid-1997, the American Black Film Festival was born. Now in its 27th year, the festival’s mission to discover and prepare the next generation of Black and brown filmmakers is as strong as ever.

“This festival, at its core, is about supporting the underserved,” Friday said. ABFF, which runs June 14-18, includes independent and spotlight screenings but also masterclasses and networking events that encourage the free exchange of ideas. Friday pointed to the careers of Ryan Coogler and Issa Rae as examples of filmmakers who got their start at ABFF and are now creating more opportunities for more creatives of color.

“Everything we do is about how we can introduce people into the Hollywood ecosystem,” Friday added.

ABFF’s 2023 iteration begins with the selection screenings throughout June 14 and an opening night screening of Netflix’s “They Cloned Tyrone,” starring John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris. Other screenings include “The Blackening” on Thursday, “Exposing Parchman” on Friday and two episodes of Rae’s “Rap Sh!t” as part of Sunday’s community day. A star-studded list of celebrities including 2023 festival ambassador Lena Waithe, Gabrielle Union, Boyega and Deon Cole will make appearances throughout the weekend.

The festival, however, comes at a rather tenuous time for both the state of Florida and the movie industry in Hollywood. In Florida, the NAACP recently issued a travel advisory for the Sunshine State in an attempt to draw attention to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks on Black and brown Floridians. The decision to stay wasn’t taken lightly, Friday said.

“We decided to stay because it’s working and we’re welcomed,” Friday added, emphasizing the upwards of 10,000 people that attend the event and the countless others who’ve gotten their start at ABFF. “If we didn’t feel welcomed, we’d leave.”

In Hollywood, a writer’s strike that seeks to bring pay equity and streaming residuals has disrupted production on a number of movies and television shows. For New York-based independent filmmaker Ramon Pesante, the strike has affirmed his decision to go the indie route.

“Now more than ever, you can have creative control,” said Pesante, whose project “Playing Sam” premieres 2:20 p.m. Wednesday inside screening room two at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

His team, for example, was “98% creatives of color.” “People need to think like entrepreneurs,” he said. “Green light yourself.”

“Playing Sam,” which Pesante co-wrote with its star Jenni Ruiza, is a rather personal story. Loosely based on the experiences of Pesante’s mother, the film follows a non-Spanish speaking Latina actress who struggles to find roles. Not only did Pesante cast his mother in “Playing Sam” – Phyllis Salaberrios plays a casting director who critiques Ruiza’s character – but he primarily self-funded the project that he produced over the course of three years while holding down his day job in marketing.

“I want to show people a different way of making films,” said Pesante whose film was one of eight selected to compete in the narrative features section. Considering he’s “going up against Hollywood-led films,” Pesante has embraced the underdog role, with one of his only wishes that his film gets “others more opportunities.”

The same goes for Moon Lee Ferguson, the creator of “Criblore,” a web series that flips pieces of South Florida’s Black culture into horror fables and premieres 6:25 p.m. Friday at O Cinema South Beach. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Ferguson couldn’t help but feel honored that her series got accepted into a film festival in her backyard, especially considering how much her upbringing influenced it.

“People really don’t know that Black people – Southern Black people – live down here,” Ferguson said. “Our country has palm trees and alligators but it doesn’t make us less Southern than those in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and stuff like that. We have that same culture – we just happen to be on the beach.”

Ferguson was that kid who stayed up past her bedtime watching “X-Files,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Tales from the Hood” and host of other horror and sci-fi projects. And while her parents might not have always approved at the time, “Criblore” being one of 17 selections in ABFF’s web series section shows she was just researching. All she’s hoping for now is the opportunity to turn “Criblore” into a television series – and meet more Black filmmakers in the horror genre.

“It’s such a niche thing,” Ferguson said, “and in order to make these type of things you have to connect with people who’re not afraid to let their imagination run wild.”

IF YOU GO

▪ WHAT: American Black Film Festival

▪ WHERE: South Beach (Miami Beach Convention Center, O Cinema, New World Center, Bass Museum) & Overtown (Lyric Theater)

▪ WHEN: June 14-18, 2023

▪ TICKETS: Visit https://www.abff.com/miami/festival-passes/ for more information