The ABFF (American Black Film Festival) was held in New York in the Tribeca area for the first time since it's inception in 1997. It was first held in Acapulco and then moved to Miami. The ABFF is an independent film festival that focuses predominantly on the works African Americans within the film industry. Over the past 4 days (June 19-22) the festival showcased Gala Screenings such as The anticipated "Think Like a Man Too" and the latest film from Spike Lee, "The Blood of Jesus".
The festival also showcased narrative features, documentaries and an HBO short film competition. I had the opportunity to attend the HBO Shorts ( "Muted", "Dawn", "Ir/Reconciable", "The Perfect Sacrafice"and "When it all Falls Down") as well as the directorial debut of Morris Chestnut's short film entitled "Brakedown". These short films were well done and covered issues which ranged from dealing with family members who were substance abusers, the ups and downs of relationships to racism.
Overall the festival had a great turn out for its New York debut and I hope that they bring it back next year. It was a great platform that showed there is a lot of wonderful opportunities for African American film.
