Donnie Seals, Sr., and his son Eric D. Seals in front of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.
Every year in October, the Chicago International Film Festival is held. Wonderful films of all types are shown in several theaters across Chicago. I especially look forward to the Black Perspectives schedule of films. As the program states, “Black Perspectives is a celebration of the cultural and historical impact of African American and Black experiences, showcasing the diversity and richness of African Diasporic narratives.” This year’s selections were phenomenal; some you will be able to see on various streaming services.
A few of my favorites were:
SPACE RACE: Directed by Lisa Cortes and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
It is the story of the pioneers in civil rights and outer space. Black astronauts boldly ventured where no Black Americans had ever gone before. It is presented through decades of archival film and interviews in a reflective illumination on the burden of breaking barriers.
You can view this film on the streaming service Peacock.
BIKE VESSEL: Directed by Eric D. Seals
This is the heartwarming story of Donnie Seals, Sr., and his son Eric D. Seals’ epic bike ride from St. Louis, Missouri, to Chicago. Yes, this is warm and fuzzy, but Donnie was 70 years old at the time and had had three open heart surgeries. Donnie took up bike riding to become healthier. Eric is a filmmaker and decided to document his father’s bike riding obsession.
In a question and answer session after the film, Eric was asked why he decided to start riding with his dad. His response was, “One of the quotes from our doctor that I really appreciated was, “The best way to influence your family members, your children, is to make a change yourself, because that’s what they’re going to see.” That’s why I joined this film. At first it was just capturing his story, but I’m like, “Man, he out here 65 years old, getting these rides in, what am I doing?” I joined him, and that’s when I got my first bike and stuff like that.”
This film is not only a feel good film about a father and son bonding, but also an eye opener on Black American health, love, dedication, and change. You can see the film on the Netflix streaming service.
SILVER DOLLAR ROAD: Directed by Raoul Peck (I AM YOUR NEGRO)
This film touched me in a special way. It tells the story of the Reels’ family in North Carolina. I spoke with Raoul and asked him to tell the story of this family.
“The Reels’ family story is, can you imagine you’ve been born on the land, you grew up there, your grandparents were born there, you have children there and suddenly people are coming and trying to seize part of that property? And unfortunately, the legal system and the complication of this legal system, is built not to help poor landowners to keep their land, but to help speculators to buy your land or to steal your land.
“And that’s unfortunately ingrained in the whole history of this country. So, what makes the Reels’ family even more poignant is that the two brothers, Melvin and Licurtis, were born on that piece of land, and they have their two houses on the waterfront, on the water side, the prime land that speculators wanted to buy.
“And to have to buy a story that started in the 1970s where another person in the family who didn’t even live there asked for this particular part of land saying that he inherited it, and he came with a fraudulent title.
“Again, that happened in many families, especially after the death of the patriarch or matriarch, all sorts of things come up. But in that case, that was particularly hard because most people didn’t really know him. And that’s the problem with heirs’ property. After one or two generations, you have 100, 200 inheritors who could pretend to have a piece of that land.”
In the film so many things happen to this family. The land is sold to a white company that wanted to use the land to build condos and golf courses on it. They sold it to an investor who did not live in the U.S. and had never seen the land nor used it, so he had even less incentive to find some sort of solution. Except at one point, he did offer to sell it back for $300,000, but the family did not have that kind of money.
The two brothers were put in prison for not leaving their property.
Raoul Peck said: “That’s the scandal. And that’s where the racism comes in as well. The last lawyer who finally got them out, without saying it like this, but he said that’s the elephant in the room, because there were other ways to settle the case. Even they, [the white owners] could have said, ‘Okay, we are going to destroy the house ourselves. We are going to put walls around it, and we are going to bill the brothers.’ They didn’t do that. The judges really wanted to punish them and give them a lesson that they cannot defy the court. That’s a contempt charge, but you don’t go for almost eight years [in prison] because of contempt. There is something else behind that.”
So that’s what I think enraged people. It’s the injustice of that. And basically the… how do I put it? There was no necessity for that result.
You’re not going to have a better result. You ask them to destroy their house and they are imprisoned. So how do they do that? It’s absurd. It’s catastrophic, and you feel powerless that the two men not only went through that, but they survived and they’re still fighting. And that gives you courage because the family is still there, and they are not going anywhere.
This film can now be seen on PRIME VIDEO. It is so worth it.
I never would have known about any of these films if it wasn’t for the Chicago International Film Festival Black Perspectives series.
Until next time, keep your EYE to the sky!
