CM James and Act Now Fdtn Present BAM Film Screening on African Diaspora

You are invited: Council Member Letitia James, ActNow Foundation and BAMcinematek present-

ActNow: New Voices in Black Cinema with a screening of 6 Things I Never Told You. This series was developed to focus on independent feature films that mirror the experiences of the African Diaspora.

Contact: Amyre Loomis at the Office of Council Member James - (718) 260-9191
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Aaron Ingram
Phone: 347.274.0563
Email: aaron@actnowproduction.org

6 Things I Never Told You Premieres as Inaugural Film in the “New Voices In Black Film” Screening Series at BAMcinèmatek

New York, NY– August 2009- ActNow Foundation, in conjunction with Council Member Letitia James, is partnering with the historic, world-renowned Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) to usher in its new ongoing screening series, “Act Now: New Voices In Black Film.”

Focusing on true independent feature films that mirror the experiences of the African diaspora, the inaugural film in this series is 6 Things I Never Told You, a collaboration of six very different films under one banner by six award-winning NYU Graduate Film Program alums, best described by them as an “anthology of cinematic snapshots examining committed romantic relationships in flux.” Each film centers on a significant landmark in the time line of relationships that are either renewed, dominated or lost, but all longing for one thing: control.

Breaking from standard relationship film fare, 6 Things… examines Black sex and sexuality without showing the act of sex. “Showing sexuality without showing sex allowed us, and the filmgoers, to explore the relationships on a different level,” says “Thing Two - The Cable Box” director Cinque Northern. “Black love and sex on the silver screen tends to not be nuanced,” explains Northern, “with 6 Things…, we show this love in different forms.”

Working collaboratively to release one film is experimental enough, but the self described “6 Leagues” took the experiment even further. Choosing ‘randomness’ as one of the underlying guidelines for each film, at their first meeting they picked a book off “KING - Thing Five” director Caran Hartsfield’s shelf, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, and picked one random line from the book as the basis for their films, interpreted by each filmmakers sensibilities.

Northern further describes the experience of 6 Things I Never Told You as a “total, artistic experiment that challenged [the filmmakers] and aims to challenge to film going audience from the standard movies on Black relationships that we’ve been inundated with for years.”

Starring Jamie Hector (HBO’s The Wire), Novella Nelson (Antwone Fisher), Hassan Manning, Cherise Booth, Dominique Morriseau, Leopold Lowe, and Lela Aisha Jones, 6 Things I Never Told You will be shown at BAMcinématek on August 27th, 2009. For more information, go to www.ActNowproduction.org.

ActNow Foundation is a non-profit 501c(3) theatre & film organization, based in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which focuses its productions on the full range of African-American & Latino experiences in New York City, throughout the United States and around the globe.

Letitia James is the New York City Council Member for Brooklyn’s 35th Council District. Elected in November of 2003, she proudly represents the neighborhoods of Clinton Hill, Fort Greene and Prospect Heights, as well as parts of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Council Member James is a Brooklyn native; she chairs the Contracts Committee and serves on the committees for Economic Development, Parks & Recreation, Small Business, Government Technology, Veterans and Women’s Issues.

BAMcinématek, Brooklyn's only daily, year-round repertory film program, presents new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics from cinema history, work by local artists and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors and other guests. BAMcinématek has not only presented major retrospectives by well-known filmmakers, but has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists. BAMcinématek is part of the greater Brooklyn Academy of Music arts community, America's oldest continuously operating performing arts center founded in 1861.

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Websites:
http://www.actnowproduction.org
http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=1429
http://letitiajames.info