5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

A CineMixer

Meet Rosalyn Coleman Williams, our 2008 Emerging Filmmaker, and other visiting filmmakers. 

Live jazz by the Doug Irving Trio.  

7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

ALL ABOUT US

Feature - 90m

Director:  Christine Swanson

When two filmmakers hit a brick wall in Hollywood, they set off to Mississippi to personally ask Morgan Freeman to star in their next film.  With stellar performances by Boris Kodjoe, Ruby Dee, and special appearance by Morgan Freeman. 

6:00 – 8:00 p.m. 

STEEP

Short - 6m

Director:  Adetoro Makinde

A woman's day out shopping becomes far more complex than usual when she daydreams about the day when, as a child, someone used a racial slur against her for the first time.

FINANCIAL AIDS

Short - 20m

Director:  S. Torriano Berry

Two graduating college seniors must deal with love, infidelity, and AIDS.

 TROUBLE IN THE WATER 

Short - 16m

Director:  Roger Lee Edwards

Although a proud African-American, Gary has grown suspicious and alienated from his own people -- struggling with their negative and often embarrassing behavior and attitudes.  A chance meeting triggers a chain of reflection and memory that promises to liberate him after all.

TOMASA'S REVENGE

Short - 15m

Director:  Steve T. Berry

A grandmother visiting relatives in Punta Gordo becomes intertwined in everyday realities of violence and spousal abuse.  Adapted from "Noh Matta Wat!," the first dramatic TV series of Belize.

LIFTED 

Short - 30m

Director:  Randall Dottin

Deena has dreams of being one of the greatest dancers who ever lived, but she's a single mom and hasn't had a good gig in years.  When she fails her biggest audition ever, she finds herself trapped ina subway station after abandoning her child.  Will she get out?  And who trapped her?

8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

I USED TO LOVE HER 

Feature – 90m

Director:  Mark Harris

A famous pop singer leaves the glamour of Hollywood for her hometown of Chicago and falls in love with a poor spoken word artist. 

10:00 – midnight

ALGENY

 Feature – 96m

Director:  Andrew Burroughs

A young man becomes a pawn when a pharmaceutical company discovers that he has a unique immune system and literally wants his blood.

12:00 noon

Family Cinema featuring...

WORMHEAD

Animation - 15m

Director:   Manauvskar Kublall

Jesse is excited about entering the second grade -- she has both a new teacher and her old friends Terry and Anne.  This year, there is a new girl in class, Nia, and Terry and Anne don't like it.  How can Jesse keep her hold friends and her new one? 

DRAWING ANGEL

Short - 19m

Director:  Rosalyn Coleman Williams

Lonely and new to the city, Samantha meets Levi, a nine-year-old boy displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

THE LEGEND OF THE SKY KINGDOM

Animation - 71m

Director:  Roger Hawkins

Three children make a daring escape from the underground city in which they are slaves of the Evil Emperor. They go in search of the fabled Sky Kingdom and the great Prince Ariel. In a dramatic roller coaster ride, from forest to plain, through chasms and canyons, their exciting journey unfolds and as it does - so do their characters.  Africa's first stop-motion animation film was made using pieces of junk. 

2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

THE EYES OF THE RAINBOW

Documentary – 47m

Director:  Gloria Rolando

A visit with Assata Shakur, known to Wilmingtonians as JoAnne Chesimard.  The Black Panther and Black Liberation Army leader escaped from prison and was given political asylum in Cuba. 

COLORED WHITE BOY

Documentary – 40m

Director:  Dr. Maurice Martinez

The history of racial diversity in North Carolina has been kept secret since the days of slavery.  This true story about a white man from Pender County who discovers he is African-American opens the shutters of sheltered truths. 

4:00-6:00 p.m.

 A PERIOD PIECE

Short – 20m

Director:  Camille Holder-Brown

A comedy about a girl afraid of getting her period.

THE LAST ONE STANDING

Short – 12m

Director:  Roderick Shephard

Thomas knows there is not much time left in this life for his grandfather Abel.  Abel realizes that Thomas will also one day leave this world.  Sometimes death and life happen unexpectedly.

JEWELRY BOX

Short – 28m

Director:  Janice Thomas/Joshua Roybal

In trying to deal with typical teenage angst, along with a mentally ill father, 16 year old Dana Andrews finds comfort and escape in a jewelry box that her father made her when she was four.

DRAWING ANGEL

Short – 19m

Director:  Rosalyn Coleman Williams

Lonely and new to the city, Samantha meets Levi, a nine-year-old boy displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

6:00-8:00 p.m.

PAINTED SMILES

Feature - 95m

Director:  Frank E. Jackson, Jr.

Adapted from the book of the same title, Painted Smiles centers around three friends, all successful African-American women.  Things are never what they seem to be, and truths can be hidden even from close friends and family. 8:00-10:00 p.m.

"THE WIRE" TRIBUTE

Wilmington native and "The Wire" director Anthony Hemingway will join us to accept the festival's inaugural Zenith Award for Excellence in Artistic Achievement.  The groundbreaking series is now in its final season.  Includes a panel discussion.

Sunday, March 16, 200812:00-2:00 p.m

ADRIFT IN THE HEARTLAND

Feature – 70m

Director:  Brigid Maher

The story of two women who weather the initial clash of their Palestinian and African-American identities to share an intimate friendship.

2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

BANISHED: 

HOW WHITES DROVE BLACKS OUT OF TOWN IN AMERICA

Documentary – 87m

Director:  Marco Williams

From the 1860s to the 1920s, dozens of towns and counties across America violently expelled all their African American families, forcing thousands to abandon their homes. Today, these counties remain all white and their shameful history unspoken. Banished follows three African American families who boldly return to these communities to confront this legacy.

4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Awards Ceremony

&

Final Selection

"Honeydripper"

It’s 1950 and it’s a make or break weekend for Tyrone Purvis (Danny Glover), the proprietor of the Honeydripper Lounge. Deep in debt, Tyrone is desperate to bring back the crowds that used to come to his place. He decides to lay off his long-time blues singer Bertha Mae, and announces that he’s hired a famous guitar player, Guitar Sam, for a one night only gig in order to save the club.  Into town drifts Sonny Blake, a young man with nothing to his name but big dreams and the guitar case in his hand. Rejected by Tyrone when he applies to play at the Honeydripper, he is intercepted by the corrupt local Sheriff, arrested for vagrancy and rented out as an unpaid cotton picker to the highest bidder. But when Tyrone’s ace-in-the-hole fails to materialize at the train station, his desperation leads him back to Sonny and the strange, wire-dangling object in his guitar case. The Honeydripper lounge is all set to play its part in rock n’ roll history.

6:00 p.m.

Wrap Party