Films from NC: Our Movement Starts Here, The Black Baptism, Playing House
Part of Shadowbox’s Art House Cinema Pop-Up Oct 29 – Nov 4!
Watch three great films by NC filmmakers!
Our Movement Starts Here, by John Rash and Melanie Ho, is a documentary that chronicles the story of a rural, majority Black, community in Warren County, North Carolina that made history in 1982 by fighting the state’s toxic landfill and consequently sparked the environmental justice movement. The film is currently in the middle of a international film festival run and has already won the History + Best Documentary Film award at the 2024 Long Leaf Film Festival at the North Carolina Museum of History, and Best Feature-Length Film at the 2024 Social and Economic Justice Film Festival in San Francisco. (82 min.)
The Black Baptism by Stephanie Diane Ford is a short afro-futurist fantasy thriller about a young woman who awakens imprisoned by a mysterious group. The story starts with a flashback of the past struggles that lead to her imprisonment. It becomes obvious she cannot escape her troubles when a woman’s voice informs her that she must pass a series of tests for any hope of survival. (20 min.) Q&A with director to follow screenings.
Playing House by Jennifer Scully-Thurston is a dance film/cautionary tale that takes the audience into a little girl’s fantasy of womanhood. As children do, the 5 dancers adventure into their vision to see how it feels. Disappointed, they find themselves trapped in the fairytale. Maturing and coming of age, they reject the predetermined ideas of what being a woman is like. The viewer, along with our protagonists, feels the triumph of their rebellion and the vulnerability of taking destiny into their own hands. (12 min.). Q&A with director to follow screenings.