From Beyoncé’s Coachella performance and the hashtag #HBEYCU, to the 2022 March television series and college football star coach Deion Sanders’ rise from Jackson State to the PAC-12 conference, the buzz around Historically Black Colleges and Universities is getting louder.
HBCUs are also the focus of the 5th annual San Antonio Black International Film Festival (SABIFF), in part because founder Ada Babineaux honed her filmmaking chops as a Howard University student.
Fellow Howard grads Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen, both actors on the national stage, are the Ankh Achievement Award honorees for this year’s festival, which runs Oct. 5-8 at several San Antonio locations. Babineaux said honoring such luminaries should attract the due attention she feels the festival deserves.
“Getting Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen is a whole ‘nother level for us,” she said, with the goal of “bringing people into the fold who may not have ever heard about” the annual festival.
While the primary aim of programming 55 films over four days is to reach Black audiences with stories and images that represent their experiences, Babineaux said she wants the festival to “reach all audiences.”
“I hope that people will be open enough to cross borders, cross race, cross socioeconomic status, cross religion, to come see,” she said. “Because I think that we as a people, if we broaden our outlook, if we broaden our perspectives and our understanding of other people and other cultures, that makes us better people.”
‘Black Friday’
Films are programmed into thematic blocks, beginning Friday at 9:30 a.m. at St. Philip’s College with a two-hour block of short films about people overcoming such challenges as dealing with athletic failure, countering negative perceptions and competing for a spot on a hip hop dance team. The final film, Faith in Blackness: An Exploration of AfroLatine Spirituality, explores the faith journeys of Afro-Latinos around the world.
Block two starting at 11:45 a.m. takes a dystopic turn, featuring international short films from France, the U.K., Canada and Egypt.
Later on Friday at the Carver Community Cultural Center’s Jo Long Theater, a two-part evening will highlight the HBCU experience, beginning at 5 p.m. with feature-length documentary Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Co-director Marco Williams will be present for a post-film Q&A.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion featuring guest speakers from HBCUs including Morgan State University, Savannah State University and Morehouse College.
‘Soul Saturday’
The festival returns to St. Phillip’s at 9:30 a.m. Saturday with a mix of animation and narrative short films. Block four then starts at 11:10 a.m. with history-focused short films, ending with a documentary on pioneering Black sportscaster Jayne Kennedy.
Block five begins at 1:10 p.m. with Cow, an eccentric look at daily life in Iran by filmmaker Nasrin Mo. Documentary and narrative short films on difficult social issues such as drug addiction and HIV follow, with StorytellHER: My Child, a tragedy about a mother’s loss of her daughter by Jamaican director Akeem Mignott, rounding out the program.
Feature-length narrative drama Angie’s Cure runs at 3 p.m., dramatizing the revenge quest of a traumatized young woman against her attacker. Director Corey Grant will be present for a question-and-answer session following the film.
The locally-produced full-length film The Quilt: A Living History of African American Music, an educational documentary for children produced by nonprofit Musical Bridges Around the World, will screen at 6:35 p.m.
Though The Quilt has garnered attention and awards at 25 film festivals throughout the U.S., actor Cynthia Gibbs said having the film shown in its hometown will be special.
“When I found out that they selected this film, I was more excited about this than any of the other ones,” Gibbs said. That the film was shot at the Carver Center adds a special note, and her status as an HBCU alumna from Florida A&M University only adds to what she characterized as the magic of the event.
An entire slate of full-length feature films will run simultaneously at the Jo Long Theater from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Day Two will culminate with a free outdoor event featuring food trucks, a vendor market, Black film trivia and a 7:30 p.m. screening of Spike Lee’s HBCU dramedy School Daze.
The envelope, please
The festival culminates Sunday with a 12:30 p.m. awards brunch at the Little Carver Theater. Films in competition, a regular feature of film festivals meant to recognize excellence in filmmaking, will be celebrated.
Students of the Eastside Youth Content Creators Program, who recently completed a summer session of filmmaking, will act as presenters and ambassadors during the brunch, mixing with film professionals to round out their educational experience.
Details on festival and awards brunch tickets, and information about each day’s film programs can be found by following the links above or clicking on the “SABIFF 2023” tab on the festival’s website.
