American Black Film Festival Pop Up Tour comes to Atlanta

The American Black Film Festival Pop Up Tour comes to Atlanta this weekend Nov - Photo provided by ABFF The American Black Film Festival is making a stop in Atlanta this weekend The ABFF Pop Up Tour will be at AMC Madison Yards Nov - according to a press release This is a new initiative from the American Black Film Festival which is based in Miami Beach meant to expand the festival s reach beyond its flagship event Other pop ups have and will take place in New York Dallas and Los Angeles There was a demand for it and the brand had national awareness and global awareness declared festival founder Jeff Friday of the decision to do the pop up tour Certainly we just decided this year that enough was enough It s time for us to expand the footprint of the brand Before founding the festival in Friday went to the Sundance Film Festival to see the film Love Jones The festival scene has since evolved to become more diverse but back then while Friday loved the festival experience and the vigor he didn t see as much diversity as he would have liked It wasn t diverse enough he explained American audiences were more diverse than the people making decisions about these movies This realization spurred Friday to start the American Black Film Festival which has grown as the years have gone by spotlighting Black talent from across the country For example Ryan Coogler director of movies like Black Panther and this year s Sinners won the festival s HBO Short Film Award in and the Rising Star Award in We ve had so a large number of success stories Friday mentioned It s been an amazing adventure Throughout the weekend the ABFF Pop Up Tour will feature screenings and conversations with industry figures about everything from screenwriting to working behind the camera The pop-up event in Atlanta will start at a m on Nov with a Master Class with Randall Dottin a filmmaker and the chair of the Screenwriting Department at New York Film Academy s New York campus Other industry faces set to attend include actress and producer Crystal Renee Hayslett actor Adrienne Walker and actor and filmmaker Terri J Vaughn The overall vision for my programs crew is to bring a little bit of what we do at the festival to the pop ups Friday commented There s one master class in every city Then we do what we call celebrity conversations and TV premieres and film premieres We have a series called BOB Talks where we highlight Black-owned entrepreneurs Atlanta s BOB Talk which takes place on Nov will feature local Atlanta businesses Also on Nov the pop up will screen Meta Take One an Atlanta-made film from filmmakers John Dierre and Ryan Dutter The film won the festival s John Singleton Award for Best Debut Feature On Nov at p m the pop up will also include a showcase of five short films that were finalists for this year s HBO Short Film Award Those films include the winner ADO from director co-writer Sam Henderson and co-writer Ryan Romine A Beauty Supply in Queens from writer and co-director Princess Adenike and co-director Oluseyi Olatujoye In Good Hands from writer Yasmine Crawley and director Nick Buchheit ManBooBs from writer director Luke Harris and Last Hoorah at G-Baby s from writer director DeeDee Casimir Friday reported that the HBO Short Film showcase is the festival s longest running campaign Friday disclosed his advice to aspiring filmmakers especially those looking to compete in the short film scheme at ABFF is to watch as plenty of shorts as doable and to be critical of your own work We re touring this showcase specifically because we want people to see what the competition is Friday stated We want you to see what the level is what the bar is The full schedule and tickets for each event can be discovered online The post American Black Film Festival Pop Up Tour comes to Atlanta appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta