“Artists are here to disturb the peace.”
—James Baldwin
Nova Frontier Film Festival has just announced the 2020 edition of their festival, which will be taking place virtually from Thursday, June 11th until Sunday, June 14th, free of charge. They will be partnering with Laurel Channel TV to bring the festival to their audiences. Laurel Channel TV is an online niche streaming platform that features the Best Films from the Best Film Festivals around the world.
Nova will also continue its partnership with RestorationArt and The Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn, New York that has been their home and family since the inception of the festival. “Together, we are committed to bringing our audience culturally, socially, and politically relevant films and arts that celebrate our diversity and human connectedness; supporting independent filmmakers and artists, globally,” read their official press release. “Despite the global health crisis, and the challenges that independent filmmakers, arts organizations, and the film industries are facing as a result of this pandemic, Nova Frontier Film Festival is fully dedicated to working with our Filmmakers, Partners, and Sponsors, and our hearts and thoughts are with everyone affected by COVID-19.”
Image from the film BAB SEBTA by Randa Maroufi.
Nova Frontier Film Festival showcases and nurtures the works of filmmakers from and about the African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American diasporas. Though immigration will be the dominant theme running throughout all the films in this year’s submissions, the 2020 program of 17 curated long and short-form films, panels, performance, and interactive experiences tackles a variety of diverse topics including family, global migration, community, and Climate Change.
“We believe that art matters, stories matter, our filmmakers, and our audience matter more than ever. We hope this online virtual space and venue will bring communities together, to reflect, share, and experience our deepest humanity, and connections through our curated global films, and discussions.”
Here are just of some films that will be featured in this year’s virtual festival:
TEGHADEZ AGADEZ by Morgane Writz (Belgium)
In Agadez, a city of Niger on the outskirts of the Sahara, migrants on the road to Europe cross paths with others who have fled Libya or been expelled from Algeria. The film spends several days with these migrants as well as with a smuggler.
“They told us about their hopes, their dreams, their difficulties,” says filmmaker Morgane Writz. “Sometimes they play, they cook or they dance: they are human beings.”
Screenshot from the film NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN by Baloji
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN by Baloji (Belgium)
Using his trademark assemblage of esoteric costume and visual metaphors, Congolese-Belgian hitmaker and filmmaker Baloji explores the practice of skin lightening in black communities. Euphemistically described as ‘brightening’ or ‘toning’, skin bleaching takes many innocuous forms—such as creams, buffs and soaps—to deal with hyperpigmentation, but is more often used by women to emulate Eurocentric beauty standards.
“Never look at the sun is an expression I heard growing up,” says Baloji. “Never look at the sun and don’t play under it because you’re dark enough. It’s a way parents try to protect their children, but this has side effects.”
THE SQUAT by Juan Pablo Montalva (Colombia)
The Squat is a short documentary that gives a glimpse into the inner lives of the Colombian immigrants currently living in Santiago, Chile. The Squat, or “La Toma”, is a community of nearly 17 immigrant families who have built their own housing above the highway, out of pedestrian sight, at the abandoned Yungay railroad station in Santiago. Their interviews (or stories) are tales of estrangement and survival; as they have escaped one country’s horrors, they now face unfamiliar challenges in their new country, Chile. Their living conditions are fragile, with the promise of new beginnings, their hope is a simple and universal one.
BAB SEBTA by Randa Maroufi (Spain/Morocco)
“Bab Sebta” (or “Ceuta’s Gate”) is a series of reconstructions of diverse situations observed in Sebta/Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in the north of Morocco. The border of Bab Sebta is the scene of a traffic of manufactured goods, sold at discounted prices. Thousands of people cross this border every day, carrying enormous packages of goods. In the film, we watch this “ballet” of individuals around the border, and witness the dynamics of movement, the plastic and visual appearance of the passage, the characteristic situations of waiting and the redundancy of gestures.
SLAM : SWORDED WORDS by Tatiana Lohman, Roberta Estrela D’alva (Brazil)
The same scene with different facets in Chicago, NYC, Paris and São Paulo: the poetry slams, poetry performance battles established as encounters that instigate creativity and diversity and defy the conservative wave in politics as Agoras for expression and free thinking. In Brazil, the poet Luz Ribeiro wins the national championship and goes to the Poetry Slam World Cup in Paris, representing the new black and feminist standpoint that has been gaining momentum through the poetic virulence of the politicized word.
From the film SLAM : SWORDED WORDS by Tatiana Lohman, Roberta Estrela D’alva
About Nova Film Festival and Lab
Nova Frontier Film Festival and LAB is a timely narrative, documentary and experimental film festival, and multi-disciplinary lab, passionately committed to showcasing and incubating the works of filmmakers and artists from and about the African Diaspora, Latin America, and the Middle East. The LAB which is a core component of the festival teaches filmmaking and media arts to youth and emerging filmmakers from underserved and under-represented communities in Brooklyn, and globally.
About The Billie Holiday Theatre
The AUDELCO and Obie Award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre is devoted to the discovery of world-class storytelling with a focus on stories for, by and about people of African descent. The Billie presents, promotes and sustains art that reflects the definitive issues of our time in and through all of its forms of expression. The Billie Holiday Theatre has been a significant platform for many Black theater artists, including Samuel L. Jackson, Ruby Dee, Omari Hardwick, Debbie Allen, Wendell Pierce, Roger Robinson, John Amos, Sonia Sanchez and more.
About Laurel Channel TV
Laurel Channel TV is a streaming platform dedicated to presenting films that have screened at vetted film festivals from around the world. Festival Directors, Filmmakers, and Actors will be able to showcase their events and work on a unique channel that allows viewers to discover more about the productions and the artists with access to behind the scenes footage, interviews, reviews and filmmaking resources. For more information, visit LaurelChannel.tv.
Editor’s Note: An earlier publication of this article included incorrect dates for the festival. This article has been updated to reflect the correct dates for the 2020 Nova Frontier Film Festival.