For 11 years, Reel Black Filmmakers has been empowering Black creatives in the filmmaking space. The height of the pandemic shuttered their programming for a bit, but they are back this year stronger than ever with impactful quarterly meetings, knowledgeable workshops and special screenings.
Reel Black Filmmakers’ founding member and filmmaker Derek Grace shares, “Our goal of all of our sessions is to continue building a community of Black filmmakers, who collaborate and tell impactful and technically-sound stories.”
This quarter’s Film Screening & Workshop Series is Saturday, February 18th from 2-4pm at Harris Park, 6200 S. Drexel Avenue and will feature Reginald J. Rice’s film, “Tracing Our Path Through Bronzeville.” Rice is an emerging writer, historian, branding analyst and filmmaker from the South Side of Chicago. Following the screening, Rice will participate in an audience Q&A session.
“Reginald has been a committed member of Reel Black Filmmakers for years, and we are excited to screen his project,” Grace states. Rice’s short films and documentaries are heavily influenced by life in the city, moral dilemmas, and dismantling invisible walls that divide class and cultures.
Since 2017, Reel Black Filmmakers has been a program with the Community Film Workshop of Chicago (CFWC). “Reel Black Filmmakers is spearheaded by a group of committed artists, who are advocates for inclusion, collaboration, exhibition, and mentoring. In addition to screening films made by and about people of color, they are producing several projects about South Side community organizations,” notes Margaret Caples, executive director of CFWC.
