The Montreal International Black Film Festival starts tonight, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015 and runs until Sunday, Oct. 4.
The films include features, shorts and medium-length works, from Canada, Benin, Brazil, Bahamas, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Mali, South Africa, Senegal, Spain, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S., the U.K., and Zambia.
There are dramas, documentaries, and animation, including Battledream Chronicle, the first feature-length animated film from Martinique.
In addition to the fims, there will be panel discussions, a film market and dance parties.
Guests include Martin Luther King III, musician Pras Michel, filmmakers Paul Haggis and David Belle (who will be honoured on Friday Oct. 2, 2015), filmmakers Souleymane Cissé, Moussa Touré, Abderahmane Sissako, and Pierre Magny (who will take part in a panel discussion on North-South collaboration on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015.)
Graduates of the Ciné Institue, in Jacmel, Haiti, will present their films on Friday, Oct. 2, 2015.
Tuesday’s opening film is the documentary Sweet Micky For President, in which Pras Michel of The Fugees travels to Haiti to help the presidential campaign of musician Michel Martelly, (aka Sweet Micky). Martin Luther King III will be given a 2015 Humanitarian Award before the film screening. These events take place at the Imperial Cinema.
The closing film, on Sunday Oct. 4, is Black Panthers: The Vanguard of the Revolution, in the Hall Theatre of Concordia University. Other films will be shown at Concordia’s DB Clarke Theatre, Cineplex Quartier Latin, and the former National Film Board cinema on St. Denis St.
Admission to the opening film is $25, the closing film costs $20, and others are $10. Several packages are available as well. Check the Montreal International Black Film Festival web site, www.montrealblackfilm.com/ for further pricing details, the film schedule, film synopses and trailers.
The Montreal International Black Film Festival has a Facebook page, too.
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