Black History Month Film Festival Encourages Young Critics
By Jessica Mlinaric in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 9, 2014 8:00PM
The Chicago Urban League (4510 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60653) is presenting the 2014 Black History Month Film Festival throughout February. Now in its third year, the festival creates a dialogue around African-American challenges and achievements through free community film screenings and discussions.
This year, young film fans will have the opportunity to take on the role of critic. According to DNAInfo, Chaz Ebert has partnered with the Chicago Urban League offering high school students the chance to review the films. Students involved in Columbia College Chicago’s youth journalism and media program, Columbia Links, and the urban league have been chosen to review a different documentary each week.
Select submissions will be published on RogerEbert.com.
According to DNAInfo's Wendell Hutson:
"By doing so, it opens the process equally to African-American students," Chaz Ebert said. "Last month at the Sundance Film Festival, there were 400 applicants for the Robert Ebert Scholarship. Six were chosen, but not one was African-American. My husband believed that society benefited from diverse film industry."
Black History Month Film Festival screenings are free and open to the public at the Chicago Urban League each Tuesday in February at 6 p.m. The remaining screenings include:
February 11, 2014
The Central Park Five, recounts the 1989 case of five black and Latino teens that were arrested, charged and wrongly convicted of brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. The case and the public and media scrutiny of black and Latino youth that followed and the tragic aftermath is explored in this film.
February 18, 2014
Dark Girls, a fascinating and controversial documentary film, explores the prejudices that dark-skinned women face throughout the world. Watch as one African-American woman recounts the moment that her mother both affirmed her beauty and made her self-conscious of her skin tone.
February 25, 2014
Chi-Raq, a short documentary that delivers a decisive blow with an intimate and slightly graphic look at the youth driven violence plaguing the Chicago area.