*(Hollywood, CA) ? Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center proudly announces its 2017 Filmmakers at the 24th Annual Sistas Are Doin’ It For Themselves and will screen 8 short films on Saturday, April 29, 2017, at Raleigh/Chaplain Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave in Hollywood, CA at 7:00 p.m. The films are by emerging African American Female Filmmakers and the event will be moderated by award-winning editor, Lillian E. Benson, ACE. BHERC encourages Men and Women to #BringYourDaughterToTheMoviesDay, to be inspired, uplifted, motivated, entertained and educated.
Lillian Benson, was recently honored by the Motion Pictures Editors Guild (MPEG), Local 700 IATSE, with the prestigious “Fellowship and Service” Award. The Fellowship and Service Award recognizes an individual who embodies the values that the Guild holds most dear: Professionalism, Collaboration, Mentorship, Generosity of Spirit and a Commitment to the Labor Movement.
?Lillian E. Benson has a had a long career editing influential and socially conscious films, and has been long active in working to increase minority participation in the filmmaking process,? commented Alan Heim, ACE, President of the Editors Guild. Ms. Benson is an active member of the Board of Directors for the American Cinema Editors [ACE] as Secretary and Co-Chair of the Diversity Committee. Benson has one Emmy nomination for her work on Eyes on the Prize in 1991. Additional credits include The American Experience, Maya Angelou and Still I Rise and Passengers. She is currently editing Chicago Med.
Introducing BHERC?s 2017 Short Films by Sistas:
#WhereIsBeauty by Angela McCrae is an 11-minute short the journey of NINA, a visual artist dealing with the pressures of social media and self-identity. Frustrated by homogeneous selfies and false depictions of beauty, she searches for beauty in its most raw and natural form and captures the experience with her mobile phone. Inspiration turns into transformation when NINA meets LEA, her latest muse, creating the final chapter in her voyage to self-discovery.
Fiorella a 15-minute short by filmmaker Hectorlyne Wuor Jarmon follows Liberian-American teenager Fiorella who wants to fit in with her new crew. But when harrowing secrets are revealed, Fiorella must make the impossible choice between her Christian beliefs and loyalty to her friends.
Free Way by Kathy Stocker. Free Way is a 6-minute short, which explores a particular milestone for Jackie, who has just turned 16. Jackie is a strident, plucky LA teenager. At odds with her workaholic mother, annoying brother, and her frivolous best friend, she feels alienated in her city. We follow Jackie through the course of one eventful day when she decides to take her independence into her own hands. However, for Jackie, the pinnacle of womanhood to which she aspires isn’t quite what it seems. Embedded in a rich array of LA stereotypes, it is a self-aware, ironic piece – which aims to poke fun at, and indulge, the LA zeitgeist.
To The Brown Girl In The Room by Zoe Davidson is a 7-minute short about the experience of being a Black woman at a liberal arts college.
Jasmine a 6-minute short by Camille Brown. Obligation. Sacrifice. To whose detriment?
Out of Bounds written by director Meme Kelly writes this 12-minute inspiring short film about an African American Professor of Literature married to a retired NBA player, who must choose between a Black Students Matter (BSM) Movement, and her allegiance to her son, an NCAA Basketball star at her University.
Hope For Dating In LA a 27-minute short by DaVida Chanel Smith is about three Los Angeles ?transplants?: an actress from Louisiana, an attorney from NYC and a biracial yogi from Northern California deal with the obstacles of dating in Los Angeles. They devise a plan that starts off great when they all find love, then backfires in a crazy way.
Raising Kings a 17 ? minute short by Lynne Conner about a family of males who seek to shatter their inter-generational patterns of the past in order to achieve true freedom. Mark King is released from jail to find his father in the hospital and his estranged son a police officer with two grandchildren he never met and hopes to.
**(Founded in 1996 by Sandra Evers-Manly, the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center is a nonprofit, public benefit organization designed to advocate, educate, research, develop, and preserve the history and future of Blacks in film and television. Through film festivals, award ceremonies, book signings, script readings, contests, scholarships, other programs and special events, BHERC recognizes the contributions of Black men and women in front of and behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.
Tickets for adults is $20 and $10 for youth ages 8-18; please RSVP 310-284-3170. Street parking is available and on the lot for $7. For further information visit the website www.BHERC.org.
# # #
#BringYourDaughterToTheMoviesDay
#BHERC
#AfricanAmerican
#Women
#Film
#Filmmaker
#Sistas
#Shorts
#Director
#Editor
#Support
#IndependentFilms
