Sidewalk hosts Black Lens Film Festival

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Sidney Poitier, Whitney Houston and Prince are part of the Black History Month celebration at Sidewalk Film Center.

The home of Sidewalk Film Festival is hosting “Black Lens Film Week” starting on Monday.

Each night includes a short film followed by an iconic feature film, like “The Bodyguard,” “In The Heat of the Night,” Posse,” Prince’s concert film “Sign of the Times,” and the original and remake of “Shaft.”

The goal is to celebrate Black actors and filmmakers.

T. Marie King, Programmer at Sidewalk said, “It’s my hope that one people come and have a good time. Have fun. You know, we’re gonna have happy hours starting each night at, at 5:30, so come hang out with other creatives. Come hang out if you just like films come if you wanna just experience happy hour, but I think it’ll be a good time for folks to just connect over Black cinema and hopefully meet some new people and see what we have going on at Sidewalk Cinema.”

King says she hopes people will enjoy some of the short films as well.

“One is the “Queen of Basketball” that it is an amazing story about this lady who actually got an opportunity to play professionally and was the first Black woman to do that. And another one that’s my favorite is one called “Fathers”, and it’s just this young man’s look at the role of Black fathers and families. And so we have a few other ones that are kind of packaged into kind of a showcase, that I think people would enjoy.”

King says next Friday night at 9:30, they’ll also be doing 90s music bingo.

To see fall the events go to sidewalkfest.com.

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