The 2024 North Carolina Black Film Festival Starts This Week In Wilmington
WILMINGTON, NC – The 21st annual North Carolina Black Film Festival (NCBFF), showcasing Black cinema, will take place from May 16 to 19, 2024, in Wilmington, NC. The festival will kick off with its opening reception, known as the CineMixer, on May 16th at 6:00 PM at Cape Fear Community College Union Station Auditorium. Starting at 7:00 PM, NCBFF will present local documentary filmmaker Christopher Everett with the 2024 Trailblazer Award in Documentary Film.
After a brief stint in Atlanta, Christopher Everett, hailing from Laurinburg, North Carolina, embarked on a remarkable filmmaking journey. His debut documentary, Wilmington On Fire, garnered acclaim for exploring the 1898 Wilmington Massacre. Since then, Christopher has continued to amplify underrepresented voices through producing projects like Black Beach / White Beach: A Tale Of Two Beaches and The Black Baptism. As Artistic Director of the Southern Documentary Fund, he’s facilitated over $250k in grants and revitalized the Southern Documentary Convening. Leading Speller Street Films and co-founding BLK Docs, Christopher’s commitment to storytelling and cultural representation shines. His latest endeavor, the annual 3 Chambers Fest, celebrates diverse cultural intersections of hip-hop, martial arts, and anime. Christopher Everett’s journey underscores the transformative power of storytelling and determination in the film industry.
After the award presentation, NCBFF will screen A WU-TANG EXPERIENCE: LIVE AT RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE. Combining performances and revealing interviews with group members and associates, classical musicians, and concertgoers, the film documents the extraordinary concert at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre where the Wu-Tang Clan, backed by the 60-piece Colorado Symphony Orchestra, weaved together songs from their vast discography of group and solo albums. There will be a post-film discussion with co-director Gerald K. Barclay and Wu-Tang Clan member Cappadonna, moderated by DJ Bigg B of Coast 97.3FM, immediately after the screening.
The NCBFF festivities will continue at 4:00 PM on Friday, May 17th, at Jengo’s Playhouse, with films by emerging filmmakers, which is open to the public and free of charge. Additional short film screenings will be at 5:00 PM, including a documentary feature, FREAKNIK: THE WILDEST PARTY NEVER TOLD, followed by a Q&A session with producers Nikki Byles and Jay Allen. There will also be a special community screening of FORCE OF BLUE at Boseman’s Shoes at 6:00 PM.
On Saturday, May 18th, film screenings will occur at Jengo’s Playhouse and Thalian Hall – Ruth & Bucky Stein Studio Theater (Black Box Theater, 2nd Floor). From 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Family Cinema will feature age-appropriate films for families at Jengo’s Playhouse. Starting at 12:00 PM, the focus will shift to documentaries, shorts, and feature films.
Meanwhile, at the second location, Thalian Hall – Ruth & Bucky Stein Studio Theater (Black Box Theater, 2nd Floor) will be additional screenings of documentaries and feature films beginning at 12:30 PM. One of those documentary screenings will be HOW TO SUE THE KLAN, produced by Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, which chronicles the story of how five Black women from Chattanooga used legal ingenuity to take on the Ku Klux Klan in a historic 1982 civil case.
This year, the festival will honor BK Fulton with the 2024 Renaissance Award on Sunday, May 19th, during the awards ceremony at Cameron Art Museum. BK Fulton is a modern renaissance man. While many of you may know him as the former President of Verizon, since his retirement in 2015, BK has turned full media mogul, producing more than 20 films, 19 books, and three number-one Broadway shows, including The Piano Lesson with Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, and Daniel Brooks. The play was nominated for two Tony’s and remains the highest-grossing Broadway revival ever. He is currently a team member for the 2024 Broadway revivals of both The Wiz and The Outsiders.
His “Mr. Business” children’s books are being made into a movie, and HBO and Warner Brothers are releasing a documentary about his MoviePass business venture. BK and his wife, Jackie Stone, are also philanthropists who give to causes that develop and expose young entrepreneurs to leaders from around the globe.
“Media punches way above its weight,” says BK Fulton. “My work is designed to use the transformative power of media to lift others as we continue to climb.”
The day will end with the closing film selection, ART, BEATS + LYRICS, a documentary that celebrates the legacy of the groundbreaking visual art and hip-hop roadshow that began in Atlanta in 2004 and has since become a national phenomenon. There will also be a post-film discussion with Director Bill Horace and Art, Beats + Lyrics founder Jabari Graham, moderated by Mike Williams of The Black on Black Project.
The NCBFF is produced by the Black Arts Alliance, Inc. (a non-profit and registered 501c3). Sponsors of this year’s North Carolina Black Film Festival include the Arts Council of Wilmington & New Hanover County, Dawson Med Primary & Urgent Care, Ken Weeden & Associates, Southern Documentary Fund, nCino, Cape Fear Community College, The Nixon Leaders Center, Coast 97.3FM, Jengo’s Playhouse, and Cameron Art Museum.
Festival passes may be purchased online at The 2024 North Carolina Black Film Festival. Details of the festival, including venues and schedules, can be found at www.BlackArtsAlliance.org.