What the Best Short Films in the World Can Teach Us about Building Community

Locals attend the closing night screening of the 2017 shnit International Short Film Festival in PhiladelphiaEvery time I host the shnit International Short Film Festival in Philadelphia, something amazing happens. Strangers from different parts of the city start talking to each other, dissecting their favorite selections from a lineup of (mostly) foreign films. During these discussions, audience members learn that they share similar viewpoints on certain films and in circumstances where people disagree, they still show consideration for perspectives unlike their own.

There always seems to be a film that stands out like a sore thumb, for better or worse. In 2015, it was Beauty, an Italian film exploring the cycle of life through classical paintings. Attendees collectively deemed this animated short “inappropriate" because of its nudity and related graphic imagery. In 2016, men and women in the audience realized that the one thing they had in common was their struggle in figuring out the meaning behind Drôle d'oiseau (Strange Bird) -- a Belgian film that tells the story of a man with Bipolar disorder.

So many different interpretations of Strange Bird led to an interesting debate about what really went down in that film. It’s a level of audience engagement that you won’t find on a typical day at your local movie theater. This year, the Austrian flick Oxytocin and Colombian drama Madre sparked the most audience discussion, particularly revolving around motherhood. Why such an of pairing of films would elicit similar responses still baffles my mind; Oxytocin is about a woman who lives with a lifelike doll whereas Madre tells the story of a 16 year-old girl who attends a casting call for an adult pornographic movie.

L'odeur après la pluie (The Smell after the Rain)Screening shnit has also become a learning experience for me, having realized over the years that there is no way to predict what someone else will enjoy watching. Moonkup, a French comedy fared better than I expected; audience members were into the story, despite the film being about women giving menstrual blood to maintain peace between vampires and humans.

 Die Badewanne (The Bathtub), a German comedy about three brothers trying to recreate a childhood photo, was hit-or-miss and I thought it would be well received. Then there is L'odeur après la pluie (The Smell after the Rain), a slow paced, uneventful Canadian film that I was sure would put people to sleep. This love story, about a widow and her old cowboy flame, turned out to be among the audience favorites.

It seems a program of foreign films can have a larger impact than one originally anticipated as well. I set out to bring communities together through the shared love of watching movies while helping filmmakers gain an audience for their work. During the festival, people from various walks of life ended up exploring parts of Philadelphia and its inhabitants in ways that they may not otherwise have the opportunity or interest to do so.

Suzi Nash and David Gana at Opening Night for the 2017 shnit International Short Film Festival in PhiladelphiaSome attendees this year were not familiar with the revitalization of the Bok building in South Philly nor Taller Puertorriqueño's newly constructed El Corazón Cultural Center in North Philly where I hosted the shnit Opening and Closing night screenings, respectively. A few fashion and accessories aficionados who attended the show at Bok expressed interest in shopping for wares at the upcoming Small Business Saturday event in the building.

A few women at the closing night screening inquired about art programs at Taller Puertorriqueño and renting the space for a private party. These experiences have taught me that the best thing about shnit goes far beyond providing locals with access to award-winning short films from around the world. It offers the ability to spark meaningful connections between ourselves and the places in which we live, work and socialize. Audience members weren't on their phones at these screenings in Philadelphia. They were completely engrossed in the stories, people and places playing out on the screen in front of them.

This year I met women who do not normally go to film festivals and also young men who do not watch foreign films. At the end of each screening, however, everyone could name a film they favored most. That goes to show how we may not speak the same language but we have the ability to understand and even relate to a vast spectrum of human emotions, experiences and behavior. As I gear up to expand the shnit experience on the east coast, I hope these mini movies can continue to become a springboard for building community amidst a diverse cultural landscape.

AMC Stubs, Four Women and Mosquitoes, oh my! The Films (and Folks) that Rocked Urbanworld 2017

'Mosquito: The Bite of Passage' starring Alisa Reyes, Eileen Galindo and Philip Anthony Traylor.2017 is a good year for short films, evident by the crowds that packed each shorts program screening at AMC Theater in Times Square during the Urbanworld Film Festival, which just wrapped up its 21^st installment.

The year is also shaping up nicely for Shaz Bennett, whose directorial debut Alaska is a Drag received an Honorable Mention for Urbanworld’s “Best Narrative Feature (U.S. Cinema)” Award over the weekend. Still, I’ve found that learning about interesting details filmmakers in attendance share about their movies, as well as witnessing spontaneous audience responses at the screenings, are some of the biggest and most valuable takeaways in terms of overall experience.

I missed out on the Shorts Program 3 showing but later ran into Tesia J. Walker, director of the short film Search Party, about a mother who goes to great lengths to plan her son’s high school graduation party, only to have things fall apart when uninvited guests show up. Walker informed me that the screening was sold out. This appeared to be a recurring theme, as most seats were filled at other short film screenings I attended and Naiyah Scaife, the lead actress in Damon L. Smith’s short film Atone, also mentioned their Shorts Program 2 screening selling out as well.

Although the domestic shorts were what I most wanted to watch, taking a second look at films I initially passed over in the program guide was key to finding hidden treasures in storytelling at Urbanworld. Silence Radio wasn’t exactly on my must-see list, yet, ended up being one of the best short films I’ve seen this year. The movie contains minimal dialogue, emphasizing visual cues and sound design instead, to convey what’s happening in the story.

(l-r) Mahipal Singh and Shahana Goswami in "Silence Radio," a short film made in France.Directed by Kartik Singh, Silence Radio is a suspenseful film about a girl named Nayla who hosts a jazz radio program at her university. One day, a man asks to come on her show to talk politics. If she refuses him, there will be consequences.

I consider myself to be quite lucky to have caught this film because Shorts Program 4 was already underway by the time I made it to the screening, but the lineup was playing out of order from its original listing in the Urbanworld program guide. Otherwise, I would have missed Silence Radio. The theater, though crowded, was very quiet up until a certain point in this 15-minute film.

No one in the audience made a peep and all of a sudden, during a scene where Nayla comes to the radio station and sees a door creaking open, a child in the audience said “ohhhh noooo!” out loud and everyone else burst into laughter. I was surprised to find out children were in the audience, given the content in films such as Shalini Adnani’s dark comedy Something More Banal, about employees that find a dead co-worker hanging in their office, and the explicit language in Nelson George’s comedy Dayton Jones, about a former private investigator drawn back into the world he left behind when people from his past come back into his life.

Then I remembered Brian Vincent Rhodes’ animated short Mosquito: The Bite of Passage was also in the lineup; obviously children were present for this cute 7-minute film that is suitable for all ages. Mosquito: The Bite of Passage is about a mosquito on her first hunting trip with her mother. In the film, she desperately tries to confess that she doesn’t like blood. I liked how the animated characters were placed in a live-action environment, creating a nice hybrid effect that made Mosquito: The Bite of Passage appear more realistic and similar to that of a narrative film.

A woman sitting in a nearby seat soon asked me if The Tale of Four played yet. She arrived later than I did and that was the film she came to see. Since Shorts Program 4 was playing out of order, I didn’t know but she arrived just in time because Urbanworld staff saved that film for last. Based on cheers from the crowd, I sensed that a lot of people came out to see Gabourey Sidibe’s 24-minute directorial debut.

Inspired by Nina Simone’s “Four Women,” Sidibe’s The Tale of Four is a multi-layered story that spans one day in the lives of four different women connected by their quest for love, agency and redemption.

Although I did like The Tale of Four and understand why it is a highly anticipated short film, I find its recent winning of Urbanworld’s Audience Award for Best Short to be a bit misleading when compared to others films from this year’s lineup. Aside from good editing and standout performances by actresses such as Aisha Hinds, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney and Ledisi Young, there isn’t much I remember about this movie. In fact, there are only three stories that stuck with me after the screening and it took some time and effort to recall the fourth while writing this recap. That said, some of the stories in The Tale of Four could stand on their own and possibly even be developed into a feature length film.

I tip my hat to Sidibe for essentially making four films in one; that is no easy feat – especially in situations like the day when a man in the building where she was shooting her last scenes called the police on her film crew, claiming that 40 people are breaking into the building. During the post-screening Q&A session, learning about how she used that run-in with the cops during production as material for her movie was among the most interesting things that came from watching The Tale of Four; it helped me look at the film from a different perspective in terms of what it means to her wanting to honor Nina Simone’s legacy “the right way” and those who support it.

Actress/Director Victoria Mahoney at Urbanworld to support 'The Tale of Four,' a short film directed by Gabourey Sidibe.“Black women are seen and strong and we’re always being put upon. You're supposed to care for everyone else but yourself. You come last,” says Gabourey Sidibe while telling the audience that she wanted to show that hey….we're human too.

After working on this project as a director, Sidibe also says she now takes rejection less personally when she goes on auditions for an acting role.

I like the inspiration behind The Tale of Four and the valuable impact that making this project had on the way Sidibe approaches her acting career, more than I like the film.

Speaking of actresses who also direct their own films, Victoria Mahoney was in the audience, sporting fierce metallic nail polish as she pointed toward the front row of seats, shouting “GET THE KID! GET THE KID!” during the Q&A panel discussion. Mahoney directed the Urbanworld moderator’s attention to an adorable young boy named Amir Mausi whose hand was raised high to ask filmmaker Brian Vincent Rhodes “Did you research the behavior of mosquitoes?” followed by much applause from the audience.

Amir "THE KID!" Mausi and his mother attend the screening of 'Mosquito: The Bite of Passage' during the Urbanworld Film Festival at AMC Theater in Times Square.Rhodes, a USC grad who made Mosquito: The Bite of Passage as his thesis film, gladly spoke about the preparation that went into the storyline and character development stages. The director also credits his mother as being part of the inspiration behind Mosquito: The Bite of Passage, while being clear that he “wanted to make a movie where a woman's appeal to a man isn't her strength; in this movie, the women are the hunters.”

The 2 years that Rhodes spent making this film continues to pay off; he is currently developing a feature length version, at Twentieth Century Fox Animation. While waiting in line to see Alaska is a Drag, I met Derrick, an avid movie goer who has faithfully attended the Urbanworld Film Festival over the last several years. “Now I’m glad that it’s more worldwide; with films from China, Taiwan, and so on. Some you can’t even understand them but you understand the concept and I really like it,” he says. Derrick goes to the movies a few times per week and first learned about the festival during one of those trips to the AMC Theater on 34^th Street. Since then, he has joined the festival’s mailing list and used to flip through the program guide upon arriving at the theater, to figure out what movie he’s going to see.

Derrick attends the screening for 'Alaska is a Drag' during the Urbanworld Film Festival at AMC Theater in Times Square.Now, Derrick is strategic about his Urbanworld experience, usually spending 2-3 days to decide on which screening to attend.

Knowing the festival takes place around the same time every year, he pulls up the online program a week before the event and then starts planning his visit.

By the time of our conversation, Derrick had already come by the theater to attend the screening for Atone in Shorts Program 2 and looked forward to seeing a few more films including The Jump Off, a short film about one gay man’s struggles to legitimize his DL relationship, and Behind the Curtain: Eclipsed, a documentary profiling the historic Broadway run of a play written, directed and performed by women of African descent. “I saw the play and I want to know how they put it together because it was a deep and really good, and I don’t like plays. I like musicals but I don’t like plays and this one kept me riveted the whole time,” he says.

As an AMC Stubs member, Derrick also explained to me how the rewards program works and showed me a $5 reward he received from accumulating points during his frequent trips to the movies. He wanted to see Marshall but it was sold out and when I told him Urbanworld added a second screening to this soon-to-be-released biopic chronicling one of Thurgood Marshall’s career-defining cases, he left as the Alaska is a Drag Q&A session wrapped up, to go grab a ticket.

Director Shaz Bennett and Actor Kevin Daniels at the screening for their film 'Alaska is a Drag' at Urbanworld.Kudos to Alaska is a Drag director Shaz Bennett for showing up to champion her film and discuss with the Urbanworld audience how she shot the movie for 15-17 days in a cute little Detroit town. Alaska is a Drag was such a fun movie to watch and contains such colorful characters – a boxing champion who also moonlights as a drag queen, c’mon! – that I’m glad Bennett persevered with her cast and crew to finish this film despite losing funding while they were shooting.

Even though Bennett could no longer pay people, she had a small team of dedicated men and women who stayed because they believed in the story. “It was like ‘look, we’re here, let’s just make the movie,’” says actor Kevin Daniels who plays the main character’s father. Half of the crew members were dressed in drag for the competition scene where Margaret Cho also performed as a drag king.

After I jokingly asked Bennett how many fish were killed during the making of Alaska is a Drag, she informed the audience that the man seen slicing the fish in the movie is actually the Mayor of that small Detroit town where they filmed. There was also a big fishing competition that took place in that town right before production began and the Mayor is “like this massive fisherman, so he just saved all of them; most of those were dead fish,” says Bennett.

'Selma' director Ava DuVernay is ecstatic to see the festival's Executive Producer, Gabrielle Glore on her way to the 'Queen Sugar' screening.By the end of the weekend, I attended screenings for one dozen short films and three feature films.

Many of these films including Emergency directed by Carey Williams and the Venezuelan kidnapping movie Child for Child directed by Juan Aveila, exceeded my expectations.

The Q&A panels and meeting filmmakers were what I enjoyed most.

While appearances by well-known figures such as Girls Trip actor Kofi Siriboe, Academy Award nominated director Ava DuVernay and Marshall star Kate Hudson were exciting to witness, audience engagement provided a chance to experience the kind of unpredictable activities and insightful discussions that make for an unforgettable night (and day) out at the movies.

What movie theater rewards programs do YOU participate in?

How well do YOU think Marshall will do at the box office?

What did YOU like most about this year's Urbanworld Film Festival?

My East Coast Perspective on 'LA 92,' a Hauntingly Raw Documentary by National Geographic

I was a kid when the beating of Rodney King happened and as someone who has never been to Los Angeles, King's encounter with the LAPD is among the first things that come to mind when picturing the city, aside from Hollywood Walk of Fame, Universal Studios, Skid Row, N.W.A, Tupac, bouncing lowrider cars and the blood/crip gangs.

Still, I didn't know much about the Rodney King incident except for that infamous video clip of LAPD officers repeatedly hitting him with batons, etc. and the "can't we all just get along?" phrase he's known for uttering in an attempt to end the civil unrest that followed his trial.

Aside from brief scenes in the movie Straight Outta Compton, I knew even less about this wave of violence, looting, arson and protests that lasted several days in what became known as the L.A. Riots.

All I knew was that it happened.

That's why I'm glad Academy-Award winning directors Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin combed through more than 1,500 hours of rare and unseen archival video footage to reconstruct what happened 25 years ago in Los Angeles, in their documentary LA 92, which has its broadcast premiere tonight at 9/8c on the National Geographic channel. Days after attending one of several screenings for this film held recently in cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C and Charlotte, it's still not easy figuring out how to best share my initial thoughts about a movie that left me with so many mixed emotions. The gist of it can be summed up by some of the phrases heard throughout the movie.

Can't We All Just Get Along

I found King's position on the incident to be especially interesting because his legal depositions shown in the film appear to convey that he never once expressed suspicion that the beating was racially motivated. Instead, the racial component seems to have grown from the African-American community's frustration and anger with the police brutality taking place in Los Angeles around the time of Rodney King's violent run-in with the LAPD. The racial aspect was also a heavy focus in the media; local and national news stations just took that angle and ran with it, fueling the flames that were already brewing underneath the surface in a city where decades earlier in 1965, the Watts Riots left many people either dead or injured -- most of whom were black.

The Watts Riots that broke out after a traffic stop involving black male motorists and the LAPD turned violent, is another controversial part of U.S. history that I was unfamiliar with prior to watching LA 92. Speaking of violence and failings of the justice system I didn't know about, there's the matter of 15 year-old Latasha Harlins, a black teenager who was shot dead by Soon Ja Du, a Korean store owner who accused the teen of stealing orange juice. Surveillance footage of the shooting show Harlins holding money in her hand and police even clarify this publicly. Yet, the judge in Harlins' trial rejected the jury's recommendation of the maximum 16 years in prison and instead issues Du a $500 fine, 400 hours of community service and five years’ probation. No jail time for shooting and killing a teenage girl....on videotape.

To understand the L.A. Riots is to also have an understanding of not only the Watts Riots but the Latasha Harlins case as well, coupled with the LAPD's habit of blatant disrespect and mistreatment of black people, particularly black men including using the n-word, engaging in excessive force when making arrests and harassing them with regularity. The police chief and state government officials' refusal to hold officers accountable for their misconduct added insult to injury. That Soon Ja Du could get away with murder even after video footage shows her shooting a teenager in the head, made the Rodney King trial ripe for scrutiny.

Learning about the extent of Rodney King's injuries were a maddening discovery for me. Yet, considering the fact that his trial was moved to a predominately white neighborhood where some of the LAPD officers charged for beating him resided, the verdict doesn't surprise me. In light of King's injuries and the fact that one of the officers is shown in court shrugging the incident off as a days work -- exclaiming "cop work is brutal" -- there is something seriously wrong with our society when a jury can watch the videotape of the beating, later view evidence of his facial fractures, chest burns and damage to one of his eyes and still not come to the conclusion that the the cops on trial were completely out of line.

Burn, Baby, Burn

The parts of LA 92 where random people are being pulled out of their cars and pummeled to death were very difficult to watch. I could also empathize with some of the merchants whose shops were looted, vandalized and in many cases, destroyed. Through the archive material Lindsay and Martin obtained from cameramen, radio reports, news footage, police files, home videos of Los Angeles First AME Church parishioners and other sources, it's obvious that no one was prepared for the city of Los Angeles to be on fire -- literally and figuratively -- when the verdict in the Rodney King trial was announced.

It is sad that things got to a point where Los Angeles residents started fighting each other and turning their own neighborhoods into ruins while the law enforcement, government agencies, President Bush and news outlets sat back and watched it play out for days on end. That said, I understand how people who have had enough of being forced, yet again, to tolerate an unjust legal system, police misconduct and other systemic issues can lash out in ways that are unproductive and tragic. The very cops who referred to black people as "lizards" and expressed a history of violent behavior towards civilians, got off scot free for kicking and severely beating a man with batons on the highway. On the way to the courtroom for the Rodney King trial, one of the cops facing charges even joked about having clothes in the car for a barbeque, indicating his belief that the trial would turn out in his favor.

During the L.A. Riots, I believe members of the Korean community and other ethnic groups got to experience a little bit of what it’s like to be black in the United States. When you call the police for help, no one shows up and if they do, they don't do anything to resolve an out-of-control situation because at the end of the day, they place their own bias and self-interest above protecting and serving you.

No Justice, No Peace

One of the biggest takeaways from LA 92 is that although the court system didn't do right by Rodney King and Latasha Harlins, members of marginalized communities in Los Angeles showed the rest of the country that there are consequences for brutalizing and murdering people. I do not condone the violent, bloody and overall destructive actions that took place there. I am merely pointing out that at least residents did something more than marching, preaching, praying to the sky, crossing their fingers and hoping community leaders and politicians will speak up and seek justice on their behalf.

In 1992, a jury of the LAPD's peers (let's be real here) told the world that a group of cops were justified in beating up an unarmed motorist during a traffic stop. Los Angeles erupted in a fit of rage because this is unacceptable behavior for officers of the law, or anyone for that matter. Now here we are 25 years later, and the judicial system continues to fail the Trayvon Martins and Walter Scotts of the world because no consequences have been brought forth by the citizens of this nation who are horrified by the killings of these and other young, unarmed people at the hands of vigilante wanna-be cops, lone soldiers and actual police who are still on the job and terrorizing entire communities.

Where are the "gangstas" who are being paid millions to pump out rap songs glorifying drugs, gang culture, prison, sex, money, alcohol, cars, hot women, jewels and all of the people they robbed, fought, shot at, pulled a drive-by on, kidnapped, stabbed, strangled, killed and whatever else will sell lots of downloads in the iTunes store? These are the same gangstas who would rather poison the mentality of their own communities than actually get out in the streets, or in the board room, or at the bank, or at the polls, and fight for change.

On May 1st, immigrants in this country are participating in a nationwide strike. They will not go to work. They will not go to school. They will not shop at stores, restaurants, etc. until they are treated fairly by the leaders and people of this nation. Those are consequences that have an immediate, measurable, and non-violent impact on everyone. They get it and they're doing something about it. In no way am I advocating for people across the country to burn down their cities. There is a lot of work that can be done in between that extreme and doing nothing at all, such as choosing the places we do business with carefully and shopping at places that value our dollars and refusing to vote for political officials who provide nothing more than lip service and empty promises, and pushing for the removal of community leaders and people in office whose actions bring harm to large portions of the population.

I thought Sean King was onto something when he started the Injustice Boycott but it's turned into a joke of a movement. What it has in focus, it lacks in consistency and power. Although I had high hopes for the possibility of the Injustice Boycott to mobilize people into actions that would bring positive results, it is turning out to be little more than an online group of social media warriors who hound political officials until the moves they make on laws and practices that impact our communities are in the best interest of the people. We will not affect real change until our collective actions have an impact beyond the keyboards.

By showing the events of 1992 from many different points of view, LA 92 challenged what I thought I knew about the beating of Rodney King, his trial, the civil disturbance that followed and how the city of Los Angeles and U.S. Government responded to the situation.

It also helped me better understand the social and political climate at the time of the Rodney King trial and also how our present-day issues regarding police brutality and the behavior of our nation's leaders mirror past events. It's eerie in a sense, to say the least, but should be required viewing for every man or woman who is part of a community struggling with oppressed by the judicial system and government officials.

I appreciate the filmmakers' decision to make this film without narration or talking head interviews. As an East Cost dweller looking in from the outside at the how the Rodney King trial and L.A. Riots impacted our country and still resonates with what's happening today, there was a lot of vital information that I was missing out on. Using only the raw footage they gathered and an orchestral score by composers Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, LA 92 fills in those gaps and taught me more than I expected.

In order to deal with present injustices, we must understand those of the past and learn from them so we can come up with better solutions moving forward. We all need to come together and treat each other better. It's one of the only ways to stop history from repeating itself because civil unrest brings death and destruction. As Raheem DeVaughn made clear on his third album, nobody wins a war.

Tune in to the National Geographic channel at 9/8c tonight for LA92!

Where were YOU when the verdict was announced for the Rodney King trial?