Parrish Art Museum & BHCCRC Present Black Film Festival

The Parrish Art Museum and the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center (BHCCRC) present the Black Film Festival, a two-day outdoor event on August 14 and 21.

The festival will include feature films, documentaries and shorts inspired by “the current epic global movement to elevate black lives and eliminate racism,” says a statement from BHCCRC.

“This Black Film Festival is a perfect extension of The Center’s Thinking Forward Lecture Series. The Festival is an opportunity to shed light on different cultures and their life experiences,” says BHCCRC Executive Director Bonnie Michelle Cannon.

The films were selected by committee members from both organizations. The aim is to “speak to systemic inequality but also personal stories of hope, and to connect historical civil rights movements to today’s events that sparked protests throughout the country and globally,” says BHCCRC.

The festival begins on Friday, August 14 with the 2017 documentary ’63 Boycott, directed by Gordon Quinn, which details a protest in 1963, where more than 250,000 students boycotted the Chicago Public Schools to fight against racial segregation.

Also on Friday is I Am Not Your Negro, a 2016 doc directed by Raoul Peck, which offers an examination of racism in America through James Baldwin’s unfinished book, Remember this House. The book was “intended as an account of the lives of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., each of whom James Baldwin personally knew. Only a 30-page manuscript of the book was ever completed,” the description states. The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, and explores institutionalized racism in America.

“The only way that we are going to come together is to learn more about each other and to spend time with each other,” Cannon continues. “Please come out and support this event; I promise you it will be enlightening, thought-provoking, life-changing and just a great time for all.”

The Friday, August 21 event begins with other, a 2018 short film, directed by Xavier Burgin, about a black woman who struggles as she navigates white spaces following the white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Next will be a screening of The Hate U Give, the 2018 film directed by George Tillman Jr. The film is about Starr Carter, who is constantly switching between two worlds: her poor, mostly black, neighborhood and her rich, mostly white, school. In the film, she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil by a police officer.

Corinne Erni, the senior curator of arts reach and special projects at the Parrish says the films are “meant to educate, entertain and inspire so that we all can become part of the conversation about racial inequality and social justice. Films are a perfect conduit to connect us emotionally and intellectually to these issues and encourage action.”

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. both nights, and films will begin after dark, at approximately 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for Friends of BHCCRC and Parrish members, $20 for nonmembers and free for students and children.

The event takes place outdoors on the museum’s terrace and lawn. Guests should bring their own chairs, and masks must be worn to access the event and while in aisles or moving through spaces. Seating areas are designed to ensure safe social distancing.

Tickets must be purchased in advance and can be done so by visiting parrishart.org.