What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1481738
OCTOBER 16-22, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 9 "A Run for More," a feature- length documentary directed by Ray Whitehouse about a transgender woman and her run for city council in her Texas town, will screen at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Pryor Center Screening Room during the Fayetteville Film Festival. (Courtesy Photo) Shot in Northwest Arkansas and involving local talent and Rockhill Studios of Fayetteville, "Freedom's Path" will screen at 6 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Global Campus Theatre during the Fayetteville Film Festival. The Civil War drama was directed by Brett Smith and stars RJ Cyler, Carol Sutton, Ewen Bremner and Gerran Howell. (Courtesy Image) "We Burn Like This" directed by Alana Waksman is an official selection of the Fayetteville Film Festival. A showing of the narrative film will be at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at Global Campus Theatre. (Courtesy Image) Three Minutes, Three Questions Tayo Giwa Tayo Giwa is the director of "The Sun Rises in The East." He answered three questions for What's Up! Q. What is your film about? A. "The Sun Rises in The East" chronicles the birth, rise and legacy of The East, a pan-African cultural organization founded in 1969 by teens and young adults in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Led by educator Jitu Weusi, The East embodied Black self-determination, building its own school, food co-op, news magazine and more than a dozen other institutions. The organization hosted world-famous jazz musicians at its performance venue, and it served as an epicenter for contemporaries such as the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords. In effect, The East built an independent Black nation in the heart of Central Brooklyn. The film also examines challenges that led to the organization's dissolution, including govern- ment surveillance, its gender politics and financial struggles. Featuring interviews with leaders of The East and people who grew up in the organization as children, "The Sun Rises in The East" delivers an exhilarating vision for just how much is possible. Q. What drew you to filmmaking? A. The film is an extension of the work my wife Cynthia and I have been doing for the past four and a half years with our publication, Black-Owned Brooklyn. A big part of our work is documenting local Black history and culture to help ensure that these contributions are understood, celebrated and ultimately preserved. We first learned about The East in 2019 while researching a post on the International African Arts Festival, and their story just always stuck with us. Particularly the fact that — for everything that The East created in Central Brooklyn, and despite the role they played in the Black Power Movement nationally and globally — their story isn't widely known. We wanted to illuminate this story, and to tell it mostly in the voices of people who actually lived it. Our hope is that the film will help this history become more a part of the mainstream under- standing of that era. Q. Who are some of your filmmaking/storytelling role models? A. Among many filmmaking and storytelling role models, I look up to Questlove for his cultural documentation in "Summer of Soul" as well as Barry Jenkins for the poetry he is able to present visually in his films. The film is currently on the film festival circuit and is screening across the country. For updates on the latest screenings, see blackownedbrooklyn. com/thesunrisesintheeast. Buggs and Christopher Barkley. "We're bringing in a couple of very special guests from the Make It podcast and Bonsai Films who are going to be presenting a workshop for pitching on Friday, " Haley adds. Two of the featured documentaries and two narrative films will screen on Friday. "Forever Majestic," which Haley calls a "beautiful local Arkansas project" about a landmark hotel in Hot Springs and the fight to preserve it, starts at 2:30 p.m. "Hard Shell/ Soft Shell," a French-language rom-com, starts at 4 p.m., followed by "A Run For Moore," a documentary about an transgender woman running for city council in Texas. There will be a Women in Film panel and reception from 6-7:30 p.m. Then the evening closes with "We Burn Like This," which Haley says is a "beautiful movie," written and directed by Alana Waksman. She adds that "it's a very female-driven story and just one of the best examples of true independent storytelling. We're super excited the director is actually going to be here for that one and take part in our women and film panel." That screening is followed by a VIP after-party. Saturday morning will open with the Film Pitch Contest, where contestants have five minutes to pitch their best film idea to a panel of judges. The winner of the pitch contest will receive a cash prize of $2,000 to make their film and will have 10 months to shoot their film in Northwest Arkansas. The finished film will screen at the 2023 Fayetteville Film Fest. More information on the contest is at fayettevillefilmfest.org After the pitch contest will be blocks of narrative and documentary shorts. The documentary "The Sun Rises in the East" will show at 3:30 p.m. After a Micheaux mixer at 5 p.m will be a screening of "Freedom's Path," directed by Brett Hill. "We're really excited about that one as well," Haley says. She adds that Rockhill Studios of Fayetteville along with local cast and crew were involved in the film, which was shot here in Northwest Arkansas. Starring RJ Cyler, Carol Sutton, Ewen The See Film Fest Page 37