The BlackStar Film Festival took place August 2-5, 2012 in Philadelphia. Its mission was to celebrate the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and to showcase film and video works by and about black people from across the globe. Other obligations did prevent me from attending all but one event, but it was a good one - A Conversation with Ava DuVernay.    Ava DuVernay, is the first African American woman to take home the U.S. directing award at Sundance Film...

They call it the Sundance alchemy…..the strange and rather unknowable process by which films with advanced buzz fall flat and titles that come out of nowhere become the next big indie flings. Such was the case at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where several of the higher profile films did not get the love from audiences, critics or distributors, and where a few unheralded films walked away with the lion’s share of prizes and, most importantly, distribution contacts that will insure th...

 by Marla LewinJohn Cooper and David Hyde Pierce opened with a hilarious wrap act to get things started.Alfred P. Sloan Award for depicting Science in Film went to OBSELIDIA by Diane Bell who said she was worried about paying her rent for the next six months and now she knows where it is coming from.The World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Documentary Film goes to ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE Directors Rob Lemkin & Thet Sambath are humbled: "we had a great purpose in making the film."...