NEW YORK,NY(SMI-ENTERTAINMENT,06.09.-06.20.21)-The Tribeca Film Festival that it's celebrating its 20th edition and resumed its indoor screening with audience after it was suspended in 2020 due to the Corona-19 virus,  will conclude this upcoming Sunday 20, with another sensational and successful season featuring world-class films from all over the world with outdoor & indoor audience and home streaming screenings for all audiences in New York City.

 

Starlight illustrated covered this year Festival vitually and attended the premiere of the widen screen film program entitled "The Queen Collective"(Queen Latifah) and 8:46 Films, which it's a new addition to the festival this year.

 

Queen Collective(Queen Latifah) which returns for its third season is a platform that gives Black creators and filmmakers a better representation of Black life on screen and promotes inclusion as part of its Juneteenth program sponsored by Procter & Gamble and Tribeca Studios.

8:46 Films is a four scripted stories told in 8 minutes and 46 seconds that tell life-affirming stories of joy, love, and resilience to honor the length of time it took for a man’s life to change the world, reclaiming the story to build a legacy of hope. 

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Queen Collective, P&G’s signature multicultural talent development initiative in partnership with Queen Latifah, Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Tribeca Studios, continues to accelerate gender and racial equality behind the camera, by opening doors to the next generation of up-and-coming Black women directors, as it returns to the Tribeca Festival for a third year.

 

The mentoring and talent development program is designed to give women filmmakers of color a platform to share important stories from their unique perspective with the aim of expanding the creative pipeline for Black female creators.  Created by four diverse young female directors including Arielle Knight, Tina Charles, Cai Thomas, Haimy Assefa, and premiering at Tribeca on Thursday June 17th, these unique documentaries shine a light on important issues directly impacting the black community such as health care, bias and discrimination.

 

The "Queen Collective" and 8:45 Films premiered eight short films overall and reviewed five  that we found interesting, educational and entertaining.

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Black Birth

• Black Birth, directed by Haimy Assefa, produced by Dominque Turner. (United States) – World Premiere. Three expectant mothers, including the director, navigate the joys, fears, and complexity of Black motherhood in America.

• The main character, beset by her own thoughts and concerns on the birth of her first child, reaches out to a pair of likewise expectant black women, though this is her first the others share many of the same concerns. The mortality rate of mothers may very well be due solely to their pigmentation, a national disgrace, yet reality and she is well aware of it. One of the mothers in a previous birthing lost consciousness for no less than 4 hours by her mother's count. One child already born with a developmental delay, fathered by a 6' 4""  man and that son has sensory issues and is already ahead of the size of those his age, a threat later if he has a reaction to a siren etc? Yes, we all need to be and are concerned for those coming up, more so for our own blood. She was able at times to find comfort in bringing life into the world, putting the issues aside to enjoy the here and now but keeping an eye on the future. One of the others had her great grandmother as a doula, now she has a midwife, just to advocate for the mother. Dismissed by the doctor when expressing her concerns, despite letting them know she is both a journalist and film maker should cause her some pause. The children are now born, mothers survived, quite a tale from an interesting perspective.

• Pearl & Henry

• Pearl and Henry, directed by Gibrey Allen, produced by Greta Hagen-Richardson, Kenneth Reynolds, and Weenta Girmay. (United States) – World Premiere. Pearl and Henry enjoy the simple pleasures of their daily routine. Despite the changing world around them, they find comfort and peace in a connection built on decades of joy, vulnerability, and trust. With Rhonda Johnson Dents and Lance E. Nichols.

• Pearl aptly named as she is the jewel of his life, despite her not being what she was as evidenced in the photos throughout the house. He is having a rough go of it but keeps in good spirits for her, they have figured out that communication is 75% non verbal as she signs to him, writes on his hand things. Unable to keep the land that has been so good to him, she consoles him. A long lasting relationship that despite the current hardship will endure. She makes a great catch, a glimpse perhaps of what was?.

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   Pulse:

• Slow Pulse, directed by Marshall Tyler, produced by Moira Griffin, Efuru Flowers and Jeremy Hartman. (United States) – World Premiere. In this moving story of love and dedication, Bernard Brash heals and finds hope by learning how to dance. With Jimmie Fails.

All we see for the better part of a movie is a man, in dire straits, waking, surrounded by empty booze bottles, to a garage with a ballet bar, was it his in an earlier part of his life? Next he is doing dance, not so well, hardly encouraged by the instructor, who I am sure knew his motivation. He works his body into shape, does his thing and falls, but never once does he fail. This tribute to his stricken son echoed as the son showed signs of movement when they met. What won't a parent do for their stricken children, how will they keep the child's goals alive, this is a great instance of it.

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Cupids

• Cupids, directed by Zoey Martinson, produced by Korey Jackson. (United States) – World Premiere. In this playful comedy, three kids worry that their beloved school bus driver will be lonely this summer without them. They set out to find her a partner and imagine the perfect matches. With Melanie Nicholls-King, Toryn Isabella Coote, Scarlett London Diviney, Julius Sampson.

How much of an impact does one have that you deal with for but an hour a day? In this instance, a lot. The young ones so close to the driver, got it in their heads that she needed a significant other, she had one. Could it have been the same person in the car noticed 2x by those in the bus, upon noticing a dog again it was noted the color of the bandana on the neck,  her dog wore the same one. Was her partner so close the whole time but undetected by the seekers? The thought of her having a same sex partner was dismissed by one. The image of the children that she only had them was conjured up both in their imaginations and furthered by the photo of them on the bus, the only photo on the bus. Seems each impacted the other a great deal.

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Change the Name

• Change the Name, directed and produced by Cai Thomas, produced by Donald Conley. (United States) – World Premiere. Student activists and educators from Village Leadership Academy campaign to change the name of a park from a slaveholder to abolitionists Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood.

What a great idea, a true grassroots effort caused change throughout the whole of the city of Chicago. Preteens to teenagers until this was finally done, a 3 year journey, impacted by Covid, but not taken seriously by the powers that be for quite some time. In this instance youth was not wasted on the young. It took a lot of effort and determination to those dismissed as cute kids at one point, in the end they prevailed, power to the people. Such a touching story of keeping on keeping on, being the change one wants to see.

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