Harlem International Film Festival

11/28/2022

Irene Cara, singer who hit stardom with ‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance,’ dies at 63

Gone too soon and sorely missed, the Bronx-born icon Irene Cara!

"Irene Cara, a child actress who later belted out 1980s anthems of joyful creativity and freedom with the title songs for “Fame” and “Flashdance,” but then battled for royalties in a legal fight that sidetracked her career at its peak, died Nov. 26 at her home in Largo, Fla. She was 63..."

Ms. Cara sued for allegedly unpaid royalties in the 1980s in a long legal battle that appeared to derail her career.

10/29/2022

EARLY DEADLINE for Films & Screenplays is OCTOBER 30!

Join writers and filmmakers from Harlem to Hong Kong for the opportunity to showcase your work in the world famous cultural capital – Harlem, New York City!

The 18th Annual Harlem International Film Festival (Hi XVIII) opens the call to all FILMS & SCREENPLAYS around the world in any category, by anyone, about anything under the sun: Animation; Documentary; Narrative; Experimental; Music Video; Webisode; Youth Film as well as a specially discounted segment on locally-produced cinema. We welcome passionate, even controversial work and we reward it.

Since the inaugural in 2005, the Festival has screened nearly 1500 of the world’s finest films from scores of countries including: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Trinidad & Tobago, the UK and the US, providing a springboard to further success as well as bestowing over 400 awards including the illustrious annual Mira Nair Award for Rising Female Filmmaker.

https://filmfreeway.com/HarlemInternationalFilmFestival

https://harlemfilmfestival.org/films-screenplays-2022-2023/

10/18/2022

VOODOO MACBETH OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY!

For your chance to receive two free tickets send us a message on our Website (link below) or through our social media pages! THE GIVEAWAY ENDS THIS WEDNESDAY at 6 PM after which all winners will be notified.

If you missed this award-winning film's premiere on Opening Night at the 2021 Harlem International Film Festival where it won three awards, including Best Film and Best Actress, you can now catch it in theaters starting this Friday care of Lightyear Entertainment!

Before Citizen Kane and the War of the Worlds, leading Broadway actress Rose McClendon and producer John Houseman convinced a gifted but untested 20-year-old Orson Welles to direct Shakespeare’s Macbeth with an all-Black cast in Harlem’s Lafayette Theater.

Reimagined in a Haitian setting, this revolutionary 1936 production, which came to be known as “Voodoo Macbeth,” would change the world forever, but the road to opening night proves to be a difficult one. Orson and Rose – who is to play Lady Macbeth – clash over everything from scene blocking to crew hires, while Houseman contends with a congressman hell-bent on shutting down what he deems “communist propaganda.” Welles and McClendon must overcome political pressure, personal demons, and protests to realize their groundbreaking vision.

In a 1982 interview, Orson Welles said, “By all odds, my great success in my life was that play, because the opening night there were five blocks in which all traffic was stopped. You couldn’t get near the theatre in Harlem. Everybody who was anybody in the black or white world was there. And when the play ended there were so many curtain calls that finally they left the curtain open, and the audience came up on the stage to congratulate the actors. And that was magical.”

“A really ambitious story to tell…Wonderfully executed.”
– Paul Eckstein, 2021 Harlem International Juror and creator/producer of Epix’s Godfather of Harlem starring Forest Whitaker.

Read more here...
https://harlemfilmfestival.org/voodoo-macbeth-opens-in-nyc/

10/17/2022

VOODOO MACBETH OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY!

For your chance to receive two free tickets just send us a message here, on our Website (link below) or through our other social media pages!

If you missed this award-winning film's premiere on Opening Night at the 2021 Harlem International Film Festival where it won three awards, including Best Film and Best Actress, you can now catch it in theaters starting this week!

Before Citizen Kane and the War of the Worlds, leading Broadway actress Rose McClendon and producer John Houseman convinced a gifted but untested 20-year-old Orson Welles to direct Shakespeare’s Macbeth with an all-Black cast in Harlem’s Lafayette Theater.

Reimagined in a Haitian setting, this revolutionary 1936 production, which came to be known as “Voodoo Macbeth,” would change the world forever, but the road to opening night proves to be a difficult one. Orson and Rose – who is to play Lady Macbeth – clash over everything from scene blocking to crew hires, while Houseman contends with a congressman hell-bent on shutting down what he deems “communist propaganda.” Welles and McClendon must overcome political pressure, personal demons, and protests to realize their groundbreaking vision.

In a 1982 interview, Orson Welles said, “By all odds, my great success in my life was that play, because the opening night there were five blocks in which all traffic was stopped. You couldn’t get near the theatre in Harlem. Everybody who was anybody in the black or white world was there. And when the play ended there were so many curtain calls that finally they left the curtain open, and the audience came up on the stage to congratulate the actors. And that was magical.”

“A really ambitious story to tell…Wonderfully executed.”
– Paul Eckstein, 2021 Harlem International Juror and creator/producer of Epix’s Godfather of Harlem starring Forest Whitaker.

Read more here...
https://harlemfilmfestival.org/voodoo-macbeth-opens-in-nyc/

08/07/2022

Watch 100 YEARS FROM MISSISSIPPI streaming at home or on a Public Television station in your area!

Following its world premiere at Harlem International, 100 Years From Mississippi received the 2021 Best Documentary Award and went on to have a successful festival run, taking home five more Best Documentary honors as well as several Audience and Fan Favorite awards.

Mamie Lang Kirkland was seven years old when she fled Ellisville, Mississippi in 1915 with her mother and siblings as her father and his friend, John Hartfield, escaped an approaching lynch mob. John Hartfield returned to Mississippi in 1919 and was killed in one of the most horrific lynchings of the era.

Since February, award-winning filmmaker Tarabu Betserai Kirkland’s ode to his 111 year old mother has been streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play and VUDU and is also available to rent or buy online at all of these outlets.

The documentary was picked up by American Public Television and accessible as of August 1 on Public Television Stations across the country! New dates and regions will continually be added. Check the 100 Years From Mississippi website for Public Television Broadcast air dates around the country.

In connection with their PBS distribution campaign, the filmmakers are working with Robyn DeShields and DeShields Associates, a national leader in the field of public television program marketing/station relations management.
https://harlemfilmfestival.org/100-years-from-mississippi-on-public-tv/

07/24/2022

The WNET Group Receives 35 New York Emmy Nominations | The WNET Group

We got back from our seasonal break to the news that COOGAN'S WAY was nominated for a NY Emmy! We were so proud to host the world premiere on opening night last year as the first festival to go in-person in 2021 and we were even happier when it received our Audience Award. Congratulations again to Glenn Østen Anderson, Peter Walsh and the entire Coogan's team Coogan's NYC! Truly deserved for this historic work and for helping to preserve Coogan's legacy.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will announce the winners in October 2022.

05/19/2022

Don't miss OUT OF TUNE and all the other films only available until Sunday May 22 at https://watch.eventive.org/harlemfilmfestival2022

05/11/2022

The in-person screenings have concluded, but the bulk of the 2022 program is now available virtually until May 15.

Whether its animation, documentary, narrative films, shorts, experimental, music videos or webisodes (or all of the above) we’ve got you covered. Head over to Eventive.org to see the majority of this year’s slate for a limited time.

https://watch.eventive.org/harlemfilmfestival2022

05/08/2022

The Virtual portion of the 17th Annual Harlem International Film Festival starts now only on Eventive!

https://watch.eventive.org/harlemfilmfestival2022

05/07/2022

Opening Night was a blast at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library and so was yesterday at Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute!

Today is the final day of in-person screenings at AMC Magic Johnson Theater before the festival goes virtual tomorrow May 8-15.

Photos by Minerva Diaz

https://harlemfilmfestival2022.eventive.org/films

05/07/2022

TODAY!!!

Yes, today is the final day of in-person screenings before we take the show on the road virtually tomorrow May 8-15!!

COME ON OUT for Crystal Kwok's BLURRING THE COLOR LINES!!

Digging into her Grandmother’s past growing up Chinese in Augusta, Georgia’s Black neighborhood during Jim Crow, director Crystal Kwok complicates the black and white narrative while exposing uncomfortable truths behind today’s Afro-Asian tensions.

BLURRING THE COLOR LINE opens up critical conversations on where the Chinese community fits into the black and white dichotomy of the segregated south, how anti-Blackness was established and perpetuated, and how marginal groups were pitted against each other in the hierarchical structure of white supremacy.

05/01/2022

Kicking off this Thursday May 5-15, the 17th Annual Harlem International Film Festival! Turn it up!!!

HarlemFilmFestival.org

04/30/2022

Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South

Digging into her Grandmother’s past growing up Chinese in Augusta, Georgia’s Black neighborhood during Jim Crow, director Crystal Kwok complicates the black and white narrative while exposing uncomfortable truths behind today’s Afro-Asian tensions.

BLURRING THE COLOR LINE opens up critical conversations on where the Chinese community fits into the black and white dichotomy of the segregated south, how anti-Blackness was established and perpetuated, and how marginal groups were pitted against each other in the hierarchical structure of white supremacy.

Join us for the post-screening discussion and Q & A with film director Crystal Kwok, Congresswoman Grace Meng and Derek Perkinson Crisis Director for the National Action Network!



https://harlemfilmfestival2022.eventive.org/schedule/blurring-the-color-line-chinese-in-the-segregated-south-62699c3bf21d880037e78813

04/28/2022

Opening Night kicks off May 5th for the 17th Annual Harlem International Film Festival!!! Now extended till May 15 for more movies and more magic...

https://harlemfilmfestival.org/

02/11/2022

Amsterdam News Remembers Renaissance Man Cliff Frazier Who We Lost Last Week!

“Frazier’s performance was masterful. He is one of the finest actors in the United States.”

"In 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Cliff left his acting career and dedicated himself to the fulfillment of Dr. King’s vision of a “Beloved Community” free of the evils of racism, poverty, and violence. He created programs and activities specifically aimed at fulfilling this vision."

The Dwyer Cultural Center

https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/02/10/cliff-frazier-a-man-for-all-seasons-and-a-life-of-purpose/

02/05/2022

Harlem Sends It's Love, In Remembrance Of Renaissance Man, Cliff Frazier 1934 - 2022

His smile was priceless and his contributions endless. You will be sorely missed Sending our condolences to all his loved ones.

Cliff Frazier is a Renaissance Man, a successful humanitarian, executive, educator, lecturer, writer, television & motion picture producer, director, actor, and social activist. His impact is felt locally, nationally, and Continue Reading →

01/20/2022

Final Deadline for Films & Screenplays is Friday, January 21

Join writers and filmmakers from Harlem to Hong Kong for the opportunity to showcase your work in the world famous cultural capital – Harlem, New York City!

The 17th Annual Harlem International Film Festival (Hi XVII) curates films & screenplays from around the world in every category, by anyone, about anything under the sun: Animation; Documentary; Narrative; Experimental; Music Video; Webisode; Youth Film as well as a special segment on locally produced cinema.

We welcome passionate, even controversial work and we reward it. You can check out last year's award winners on our homepage.
HarlemFilmFestival.org

Submit directly through FilmFreeway at the link or through our website.
https://filmfreeway.com/HarlemInternationalFilmFestival

01/18/2022

Ronnie Spector, Ronettes Singer and Ultimate Girl-Group Icon, Dead at 78

Remembering Harlem's own Ronnie Spector.

“All the musicians dropped whatever they were holding, their horns and guitars, and they were looking at this new girl in town,” Spector remembered during a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone. “All the musicians were yelling, ‘Oh, my God. Her voice!’ And I’m saying, ‘Me? A little girl from Spanish Harlem?’ ”

“Her joyful sound, playful nature, and magical presence will live on in all who knew, heard, or saw her,” Spector’s family said of the “Be My Baby” and “Walking in the Rain&…

01/17/2022

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

Excerpts from two of his speeches courtesy of Democracy Now!!

The first, “Beyond Vietnam” was given at Riverside Church in Harlem on April 4th, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee at 39 years of age.

The second is from his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech made less than 24 hours before he was assassinated where he talks about, among other things, how he was stabbed in the chest at a book signing in Harlem ten years earlier.

https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2022/1/17?autostart=true

01/14/2022

For a limited time Harlem International Film Festival is teaming up with Sony Repertory and Eventive Direct to bring you two of Sidney Poitier’s most memorable films and a bit of Harlem history.

To commemorate the life of the legendary Sidney Poitier, who began his career on the streets and stages of Harlem during his time at the American Negro Theater and went on to become the first Black actor to win the Academy Award, the Festival is proud to present two of his classic works.

A RAISIN IN THE SUN, written by Lorraine Hansberry with the title borrowed from the second line of Langston Hughes’ famous poem “Harlem,” was the first play by an African American woman ever produced on Broadway. The original cast went on the star in the film adaptation, with Poitier reprising his unforgettable performance as Walter Lee Younger alongside Harlem’s own Ruby Dee.

BUCK AND THE PREACHER marks Poitier’s directorial debut in this Western classic widely regarded at the time of its release as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with a social conscience.” The film also stars Poitier in his first screen pairing with superstar Harry Belafonte who he met at the American Negro Theater in Harlem with Ruby Dee who also stars in the film.

Poitier and Belafonte were best of friends off screen and they were united for the cause of civil rights at one point delivering $70,000 to Jackson Mississippi during Freedom Summer in 1964, the same year Poitier received the Academy Award. They were harassed, chased and shot at by members of the Ku Klux Klan because of their support for the voting drive for Southern Black voters.

The two friends were also involved in planning the March on Washington as well as Dr. King’s memorial after he was tragically assassinated in 1968.

https://harlemfilmfestival.org/films/special-sidney-poitier-tribute-screenings/

01/13/2022

Columbia Buys Old West Harlem Fairway Market For $84 Million

Columbia University Buys Old West Harlem Fairway Market For $84 Million

"Columbia University's West Harlem campus will soon run all the way to the Hudson River thanks to its purchase of the old supermarket site...

The once-popular supermarket closed in 2020 as its parent company entered bankruptcy. Since then, the Glickberg family, which founded Fairway, had been trying to sell the Harlem property — drawing interest from film studios, life-science organizations, big-box retailers, parking and self-storage companies, and more, according to the source..."

Columbia University's West Harlem campus will soon run all the way to the Hudson River thanks to its purchase of the old supermarket site.

01/09/2022

'He Left A Legacy': Sidney Poitier Remembered In Harlem, Where He Got His Start At The American Negro Theater

Sidney Poitier Remembered In Harlem, Where He Got His Start At The American Negro Theater

"The American Negro Theater gave Poitier his start, albeit a rocky one. He was rejected during his first auditions.

'He came back, actually offering to do janitorial work so he could become part of this august group of Black actors,' said Joy Bivins, director of the Schomburg Center.

It was at the theatre where Poitier developed a close friendship with Harry Belafonte. Other alums include Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Clarice Taylor..."

Before Hollywood and the accolades, Harlem was the main character in Poitier’s early story, right in the basement of what's now known as the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture.

01/07/2022

Better Late than Never! Today is the Late Deadline for Films & Screenplays!

Join writers and filmmakers from Harlem to Hong Kong for the opportunity to showcase your work in the world famous cultural capital – Harlem, New York City in the heart and soul of Manhattan!!!

The 17th Annual Harlem International Film Festival (Hi XVII) opens the call to all films & screenplays around the world in any category, by anyone, about anything under the sun: Animation; Documentary; Narrative; Experimental; Music Video; Webisode; Youth Film as well as special segments on locally produced cinema from Harlem, Upper Manhattan, the Bronx and greater New York.

We never shy away from passionate, even controversial work and we reward it (see our “Awards” page to see some of our past winners).

https://harlemfilmfestival.org/films-screenplays/

01/06/2022

Better Late than Never! Friday, January 7th is the Late Deadline for Films & Screenplays!

Join writers and filmmakers from Harlem to Hong Kong for the opportunity to showcase your work in the world famous cultural capital – Harlem, New York City in the heart and soul of Manhattan!!!

The 17th Annual Harlem International Film Festival (Hi XVII) opens the call to all films & screenplays around the world in any category, by anyone, about anything under the sun: Animation; Documentary; Narrative; Experimental; Music Video; Webisode; Youth Film as well as special segments on locally produced cinema from Harlem, Upper Manhattan, the Bronx and greater New York.

We never shy away from passionate, even controversial work and we reward it (see our “Awards” page to see some of our past winners).

https://harlemfilmfestival.org/films-screenplays/

12/24/2021

Happy Holidays from Harlem!

Wishing you and your loved ones a year of health, happiness and amazing cinema!

From the Harlem International Film Festival Family

12/08/2021

Greg Tate, Groundbreaking Cultural Critic and Black Rock Coalition Co-Founder, Has Died

This is a terrible lose.

"Greg Tate, Groundbreaking Cultural Critic and Black Rock Coalition Co-Founder, Has Died

Tate was a challenging and authoritative voice on everything from hip-hop to hardcore, and also made his own significant musical impact with projects like Burnt Sugar..."

Tate was a challenging and authoritative voice on everything from hip-hop to hardcore, and also made his own significant musical impact with projects like Burnt Sugar