Third Annual Silver Room Block Party Film Fest: 
“The Bigger Picture:  Chicago Black Media Showcase”
Presented by Cinema 53 as part of  The Silver Room Block Party

A Black media boom is rippling across Chicago, with a growing number of festivals, series and programs springing up across the city, and longtime film venues expanding their platforms for new work. Cinema 53 celebrates this moment with a unique Black media showcase at the annual Silver Room Block Party - an incredible array of film and video works, plus local makers and media programmers on-site throughout the day. Featuring five distinct line-ups from Black Harvest, Collected Voices, Chicago South Side Film Festival, CIFF’s Black Perspectives and Open TV, plus highlights from the South Side Home Movie Project. Meet the directors, producers and programmers from every program on the red carpet at the photo-ready entrance booth in front of the Harper Theater. Free admission and free popcorn!

12 - 2pm    Open TV
OTV | Open Television is a platform for intersectional television, releasing indie TV series and video art online and in Chicago. Our mission is developing artists and community. Hosted by Aymar Jean Christian (founder) and Jenna Anast (community and exhibition), this program features selected episodes and conversation with directors Stephanie Jeter (Searching for Isabelle), Rashida KhanBey Miller (Let Go and Let God) and Rebba Moore (Conspiracy Theorist), and performing artist Saya Naomi (Hair Story). Kicks off with movement workshop led by Rashi (Sex is a God Thing).

Let Go And Let God (Rashida KhanBey Miller, 16 min)
Short film about a woman trying to find her strength again to get back up in life. 

Hair Story (various directors, 15min)
Residents of an artsy co-op tell wild stories to a drag queen as she styles their hair to pay her rent.

Searching for Isabelle (Stephanie Jeter, 16 min)
While being held captive, Isabelle discovers a mysterious ability to project herself to the outside world. When she appears to two of her friends in a desperate appeal for help, they work together to try and find her - but time is running out. 

Conspiracy Theorist (Rebba Moore, 17 min)
In this sobering take on black girl magic, Renee Hawthorne is a third year doctoral candidate enrolled in a top ranked neuropsychology program when her life is derailed by a psychotic breakdown.

2 - 4pm    Chicago International Film Festival’s Black Perspectives
The Chicago International Film Festival's Black Perspectives Program was founded in 1997 in collaboration with Spike Lee to highlight the excellence and diversity of African American cinema and films by Africans and the African diaspora from around the world. Featuring a selection of award-winning and audience-favorite short films showcased in previous editions of Black Perspectives, this program is presented in honor of former Black Perspectives Committee Chair Randy Crumpton in recognition of his passion for film and his dedication to Chicago's African American film community. Hosted by Stephanie Gaines, Black Perspectives Committee Member, followed by a post-screening conversation moderated by actress Regina Taylor with director Terrian Williams (Solo).

Black 14 (Darius Clark Monroe, 15 min, 2018)
Audience Award-winning reflection on power and control in 1960s America using archival footage to tell the story of a football team's racial protest at the University of Wyoming.

Night Shift (Marshall Tyler, 15 min, 2017)
Award-winning tender romance featuring a bathroom attendant in an LA nightclub attempting to get his life back on track.

I, Destini (Nicholas Pilarski and Destini Riley, 14 min, 2016)
Award-winning animation stunning personal ode to the struggles of living with an incarcerated family member.

Solo (Terrian Williams, 12 min, 2017) 
Chicago-made emotional character study that takes place during an encounter between a young man and a police officer.

The Truth (Hill Harper, 15 min, 2011)
A tense drama about a devastating family secret.

4 - 6pm    Black Harvest
Celebrating its 25th anniversary August 3-29, 2019, the annual Black Harvest Film Festival presents a vibrant celebration of independent films that tell the stories and explore the images, heritage, and history of the worldwide Black experience. This program features some of the best Black Harvest shorts from Chicago filmmakers, hosted by Black Harvest festival consultant Sergio Mims and Black Harvest Community Council co-chair Keisha Chavers, followed by conversation with directors Sandrel "Sanicole" Young (Training Wheels) and Shahari Moore (B Love), Brothers from the Suburbs director Patrick Wimp and producer Troy Pryor, and Shinemen director Eleva Singleton, cinematographer Ahmed Hamad and production crew member Andre King.

Training Wheels (Sanicole Young, 15 min, 2018)
An incredibly gifted little girl uses her telepathic powers to bring her wayward father home.

B Love (Shahari Moore and Christine List, 15 min, 2015)
An urban femme fatale finds herself in the midst of an unconventional love triangle. 

Shinemen (Eleva Singleton, 24 min, 2015)
A short documentary featuring Chicago shoe shine technician Bill Williams. Owner of two Chicago shoe-shine shops, Williams juggled his business while also working in the tourism industry, earning a street named in his honor in Morgan Park. A cast of local historians and politicians weigh in on Chicago’s shoe shine legacy. 

Brothers from the Suburbs (Patrick Wimp, 15 min, 2019)
Digital comedy series that chronicles the highs and lows of three awkward black teens coming of age in a predominantly white, suburban, private school environment.

A Love Letter to the Ancestors of Chicago (Ytasha Womack, 14 min, 2017)
An Afrofuturist experimental dance film, performed in the corridors, stairwells, and basements of Southside Chicago.

6 - 8pm    Collected Voices
Collected Voices presents award-winning shorts, music videos, new films and highlights from their annual Collected Voices Film Fest, which focuses on original ethnographic works that explore the intersection of race, age, class, gender, and sexuality. Featuring Chicago filmmakers Lonnie Edwards (Exodus) and Adewole Abioye (Red and Purple). 

Lil' Lil  (Avery Young, 5m)
Music video featuring Avery Young and his style of Chicago House Funk.

We Dem Boi(s)  (Ciera Mckissick, 3m)
Music video celebrating the fluidity of gender.

The Show  (Theodore Tae, 14m)
A Black hip-hop dancer on a predominantly Asian American collegiate dance crew choreographs for the crew's first independent show, and recounts her journey bringing more diversity to the team. 

No Bad News (Chicago Afrobeat Project, 5m)
Music video highlighting how one choice impacts our future.

Reimagining Blackness in Ancestry (Ireashia Monet, 3m)
A look at how a dark history shapes the present of a people. 

Exodus - Sounds Of The Great Migration (Lonnie Edwards, 12 min)
Award-winning film that pays homage to the evolution of music birthed through the Great Migration.

A Tale of Two Cities (Free Spirit Media, 4m)
A different perspective on North Lawndale, Chicago is shared through image and poetry.

Spread the Love (Daniel Martinez, 4m)
Instead of looking at Chicago as the murder capital, we want people to look at Chicago as the music capital. Presented by the Life Project Chicago in conjunction with AMFM Magazine, Spread the Love highlights emerging and established Chicago musicians.

Walk of Shame (Mohamed Nazar, 6min)
A drunken internal dialogue becomes a tangible problem solving tool for a gay Iraqi man who has body image issues.

432 (Sierra Jackson, 8m)
432 is a movement based film that follows the journey of a young woman as she confronts her own anxiety.

A Radical Act (Aya-Nikole Cook, 16m)
Extended trailer for a film about an artist, yogi and social scientist exploring a debilitating condition disproportionately affecting African American women.

Red and Purple (Adewole Abioye, 10min)
A young medical doctor dreams of being a ballet dancer.

8 - 10pm    Chicago South Side Film Fest
Chicago South Side Film Festival provides South Side filmmakers with opportunities to screen their work, and diversifies and improves the quality of entertainment options in the area. Michelle Kennedy, CSSFF producer, presents two films followed by conversation with Chicago director Julian D. Jackson and producer/actor Terry Haynes. 

Home (Julian Jackson, 31min, 2018) 
In this sci-fi short, a man is interrupted by an unknown force that takes over his world, as a special agent tries to solve the puzzle.

Preview of A Time in Black December (Julian Jackson, 2019)

BONUS PROGRAM!
12:30 - 1:30pm    The COLLAB Project
Born in the heart of Chicago schools, The COLLAB bridges the gap between established artists and their younger counterparts to create socially poignant pieces that shed light on systemic injustices. Screening followed by conversation with The Collab filmmakers, moderated by Qiana Moore-Nightengale.

Control Tap
In a world where police surveillance has become panoptic, seventeen-year-old JT enrolls in a new parole program that allows her to return to school, but soon realizes her mind might be another prison. Produced with the students of Harper High School.

I used to Live in the World
After scrolling through catcalling comments on Instagram, a group of friends argue over whether or not men are trash, in this episode from the Color for Colour digital series inspired by For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide but Have Moved to the Ends of Their Own Rainbows (Ntozake Shange).

I Matter
An interpretive piece about a mother raising her son in a world that doesn't think he matters.

S.O.S. (Save Our School)
S.O.S. explores the harsh reality of students attending a school that is on the verge of being shut down by the city, a danger that threatens many low-income community centers on Chicago's South Side. Rather than submit to the pressures of systemic negligence, the students of Harper High School channel their frustrations into artistic expression as they fight to protect their school. With a splice of documentary-styled testimonials and fictional narratives, S.O.S. serves as a love letter to underprivileged schools and the historical Englewood neighborhood.

Writers Room
Burned-out writers' assistant Amira must navigate tokenism in the pseudo-liberal world of television, where racially tone-deaf coworkers make it all the more difficult to survive her tumultuous twenties.

Related To:

• Cinema 53