Last summer, as Georgia writers and actors were on strike, Kathleen Bertrand kept her focus.
Bertrand’s organization, The BronzeLens Film Festival, was reeling from two years of managing programming during a pandemic. With the television and film industries on pause, she would not let yet another history-making challenge stifle its plans.
“We’ve never missed a beat,” she said. “We’ve had to pivot to virtual things and different platforms, but we have never not had the festival since we started.”
Entering its 15th year, the annual BLFF is both a celebration of Atlanta’s growing industry influence and an effort to bring more attention to films produced by people of color. The festival runs in-person at Tara Theatre from Aug. 21-25, with more than 140 films including shorts, features, documentaries, music videos and web series. Of the films selected, 28 were produced and directed by locals.
The festival is at full strength in a time where representation of Black, Indigenous and people of color in Hollywood is still lacking, a diversity report from UCLA says. The event’s organizers, like many in film, are adjusting to a new reality. Those historic shifts presented new challenges and successes for BLFF.
The resiliency of BLFF starts with Bertrand. An accomplished jazz singer and entertainer, Bertrand founded the nonprofit in 2009.
At the time, she served as senior vice president of community and government affairs at Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Her CEO, William Pate, suggested that she lead an effort focused on diversity in film. Pate believed with Atlanta’s rise in film production that there might be more opportunities for Black locals. Bertrand did a feasibility study that involved meeting with organizers behind other festivals geared toward Black audiences.
The first BLFF event in 2010 screened 24 film over four days, and offered 14 workshops and panels. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay screened her first film, “I Will Follow.” Producer Will Packer (“Drumline,” “Straight Outta Compton”) also was featured.
Six years later, Bertrand left ACVB. “When I retired, the festival came with me,” she said, noting that the organization started doing year-round programming.
In 2016, BLFF hit another milestone, becoming an Academy Award qualifying festival in the shorts category. Two years later, the BLFF winner for best short, “Wale,” made the Academy’s shortlist for Oscar contention, but ultimately didn’t get the coveted nod.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Bertrand and her team were forced to make all of their programming virtual. That continued in 2021 and 2022. But postponing or canceling the event didn’t cross Bertrand’s mind.
“There’s an expectation of someone that has submitted their film to you, and what are you going to do with it? Tell them you’re going to hold it for a year? If there was a way that we could not do that, we didn’t want to hold it,” she said. “Having a young team, they found these different platforms for us to be virtual.”
Bertrand said last year’s edition of the fest felt like the most normal post-pandemic. But she did have to postpone the women’s awards event until March of this year because of the SAG-AFTRA actor’s strike. In year 15, there are challenges, but the show is back in full, having received submissions from over 50 countries, including the United Kingdom, Iran, Nigeria and Brazil.
“The quality of our 2024 film submissions exceeded our expectations,” BLFF director Deidre McDonald said in a statement.
Highlights this year include films produced by actors Morris Chestnut (“The Origin”) and Jamie Lee Curtis (“Burn Out”). Oscar winner Jamie Foxx produced “Happy Songs About Unhappy Things,” a film from artist and suicide survivor Nikki Lynette that delves into the stigma tied to mental health issues. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is a producer behind “How to Sue the Klan,” a documentary about five Black women from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who took on and defeated the Ku Klux Klan in court.
Contributions from locals include the graffiti doc, “City of Kings: Atlanta,” and three films — “A Hero Among Us” and Atlanta Journal-Constitution films “The Dancer” and “The South Got Something to Say” — from AJC staffers Ryon and Tyson Horne and their brother Byron Horne.
“The South Got Something to Say,” screening at 7:05 p.m. Aug. 22, is a feature-length documentary chronicling the rise of Atlanta hip-hop with AJC reporters DeAsia Paige and Ernie Suggs interviewing many of the city’s musical luminaries. “The Dancer” (1 p.m. Aug. 24), written by AJC reporter Matt Kempner, tells the story of a professional modern and ballet dancer who ended up homeless in Atlanta. The Horne Brothers’ independent short, “A Hero Among Us” (12:22 p.m. Aug. 23), recounts the life of George Axam, who died as the oldest Black barber in the city of Atlanta.
“After winning Best Documentary for our first feature on Broadway director Kenny Leon, we’ve always felt a connection to the BronzeLens family,” Ryon Horne said. “We’re super excited about the festival selecting our films this time around. We love telling the stories of Atlanta to an international audience, and this festival surely helps accomplish that goal.”
Most of the films were shot over the past year. Common themes from this year’s collection include social justice, mental health and identity.
“We are showing films by people of color from all over the world,” Bertrand said. “Thematically, it allows us to see how very similar we are because it doesn’t matter whether you’re from Kingston, Jamaica, or Jamaica, Queens, New York. There is a similarity in storytelling.”
In addition to screenings, workshops and panels are at the center of BLFF. There’s a Black women directors panel featuring Julie Dash (“Daughters of the Dust”) and French-born filmmaker Johanna Makabi. There also are panels exploring Georgia’s homegrown film talent, crowdfunding and a candid conversation between actors about acting.
Other big moments include the first Filmmaker’s Sneaker Ball at Atlanta City Hall on Aug. 24, and a signature cinema and social justice Sunday event the next day.
Bertrand said the team learned a lot from their mix of virtual and in-person programming in the past few years. To that end, this year’s fest includes virtual-only screening options that will be made available from Aug. 26 thru Sept. 4.
Though she is excited about filmmakers getting to see their work on screens at Tara, Bertrand is focused on what happens afterward with distribution, getting projects on major platforms and networks. Past participants landed deals with BET and Max (when it was HBO Max). After all of the pandemic adjustments and strikes, those wins got less frequent.
“We were having some great successes out there because the missing ingredient for us is having those studios or streaming platforms at BronzeLens able to move the needle for our filmmakers,” she said. “Getting that attention back to us has been a little bit of a challenge. I know everybody’s just kind of figuring out what they’re doing.”
Festival organizers are encouraged by initiatives such as the Creators Scholarship, which offers financial resources to film students at historically Black colleges and universities. The program is about to announce participants in its third cohort.
There also is the topic of the festival’s future as Atlanta’s film industry continues to grow. Bertrand says Atlanta being considered a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival isn’t surprising. She personally hasn’t heard from the Sundance team, even during their recent visit. “I haven’t been involved in anything, so I’m just kind waiting to see what happens,” she said. “We have our goals and aims anyway, so we’ll just keep doing what we do.”
Festival Preview
15th Annual BronzeLens Film Festival
Aug. 21-25. $15 per film. $75 student pass; $200 Bronze pass; $400 festival pass. Tara Theatre, 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road, Atlanta. bronzelens.com.
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