Film festival brings Black creatives into emerging artistic spaces

Kerri Gentius, Contributing Writer

When people think about the darkness of Richmond’s history, it is a very exclusionist history, as it is designed to oppress, suppress and marginalize, said Enjoli Moon, founder and creative director of the Afrikana Independent Film Festival. 

As Richmond evolved a non-existent downtown to an emerging arts district in 2013, Moon noticed its Black population wasn’t being represented, Moon said. 

“As you saw these buildings go from dilapidated to revitalized, they were all rooted in this arts and culture energy but you didn’t see any reflection of over 50% of the population of Richmond, which is Black people,” Moon said. 

Moon created the festival to bring Black creatives into these artistic spaces so it was understood they belong here too.

The Afrikana Independent Film Festival returned to Richmond for its eighth year of celebrating Black storytelling across the diaspora on the silver screen from Sept. 14 through 17.

At this year’s festival, Moon and her team curated events that not only showcased Black talent and interest in the world of film, but also incorporated other aspects of the arts, Moon said. 

The festival boasted over 25 cinematic pieces spanning the spectrum of film genres and topics and included the world premier of the festival’s very first inhouse production, “Ninki Nanka.” 

The festival kicked off on Thursday night with a welcome dinner at Bun Kurs for the “Diasporic Fork Tasting Event” where all-access pass holders enjoyed authentic Ethiopian dishes, according to its website. Friday brought the jams at “A Taste of Liberation” dinner featuring Tarriona “Tank” Ball of Tank and the Bangas. 

The sidewalks of Broad Street were filled on Saturday with festival goers as they made their way to local art galleries for film viewings in spaces such as the Institute for Contemporary Art, ADA and Art 180. Richmond’s African American Museum and Common House social club hosted viewings as well. 

Films were shown on a loop starting at 11 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. and covered a wide range of topics from gatekeeping Blackness within the community in “Welcome to Afrotree” by Chase Parker, and to how to handle microaggressions in the workplace in the comedic film “Gotcha” by Latoya Franklyn. 

Local filmmakers basked in the limelight with documentaries such as Nikkea Sharee’s “Sneakers On A Wire,” an exploration of the intergenerational evolution of sneaker culture. Sharee said she has participated in the Afrikana Independent Film Festival for six years. 

“Richmond is having its own Renaissance,” Sharee said. “The art scene has been a saving grace for me since I came to Richmond in 1999.” 

The festival also displayed the first public showing of Richmond’s pandemic brunch DJ and rapper Mad Skillz’s documentary “90’s Girl Brunch.” 

Color coded roundtable talks were held at the ICA that covered a range of topics concerning the Black community, including a discussion on a ‘Quest for Liberation,’ ‘Policing The Black Woman’s Body’ and ‘Gender & LGBTQ.’

The Afrikana Independent Film Festival held its first ever screenwriting competition where BIPOC filmmakers and screenwriters were invited to submit their screenplay for a chance to win the Script-to-Screen residency, according to the Visual Arts Center’s website. 

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond sponsored the residence for the inaugural winner, revel denkyem-zachary, for their script for “Ninki Nanka.”

Their script, through the production efforts of Oakwood Arts and VPM, and under the direction of LeRon Lee, resulted in a riveting and emotional piece that “depicts a teen’s attempts to escape their challenging home life only to encounter an otherworldly figure,” according to VPM’s website.

 “I’m really grateful to Afrikana and all the people involved,” denkyem-zachary said. “They really took care of me. I appreciate how hard people worked to bring the story to life and honor the folktale that I wrote.”