Black Harvest Film Festival continues to celebrate the Black experience on film
The 2023 Black Harvest Film Festival will take place from Nov. 3-16 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. PHOTO BY KYLE FLUBACKER.
In 2022, Mims passed away and the Black Harvest Film Festival is carrying on his legacy and those he collaborated with to create the festival with the 2023 Black Harvest Film Festival. The event is set to take place from Nov. 3rd through the 16th, at the Gene Siskel Film Festival, which is located at 164 N. State St.
Those who have their films chosen for the festival do receive a screening fee.
Jada-Amina Harvey is the curator of the Black Harvest Film Festival. She grew up attending the film festival. In 2022, Jada-Amina became the Black Harvest Film Festival Coordinator. This year, she was appointed to the role of curator of the film festival. Nick Leffal currently serves as the Black Harvest Film Festival Coordinator.
To choose the films that will be screened at the film festival Jada-Amina has been listening to the work and sitting with the work. It starts to speak to her and through her process, she starts to see some themes.
“Choosing a film, a lot of the times, is a lot about seeing what sort of throughlines there are in the work; how are these films speaking to one another,” Jada-Amina said.
Jada-Amina always wants to be culturally relevant and culturally responsive to the times and the people. She feels like more of a custodian than someone who is selecting the films for her own vision. She is responding to a collective vision that she is seeing reflected from the submissions.
Jada-Amina said attendees will see a lot of color and vibrancy on the screen, as well as lot of radical imaginings of life that has not been granted to the filmmaker, protagonist or to Black people, but people are setting out to create for themselves. The theme of this year’s Black Harvest Film Festival is “Revolutionary Visions.”
“Why we came to Revolutionary Visions as the theme this year, is this idea that … we are our ancestors wildest dreams. That sort of continuity of thought and vision and dreams that are so important to Black people and Black experience,” Jada-Amina said, adding that attendees will also see a lot more experimentation, because Jada-Amina is an experimental filmmaker and a student of Black Contemporary Art.
Jada-Amina was mindful of where films might be viewed, when it came to platforms and how people might interact with the content. She wanted people to come to the film festival and be able to tell their friends when they attend Black Harvest Film Festival, they will see cutting edge film they might not necessarily see in other spaces. Her hope is that when people say that their film was screened at the film festival, it will mean there was a certain level of experimentation and unique identity.
This year, there will be 20 feature films and 10 short films screened during the 14 days. Jada-Amina is excited to see new faces at the film festival.
“With Sergio’s transition and the transitions that the Gene Siskel has had in the past year … I just feel like there’s an opportunity for new talent, new film lovers, new fans and new friends of the film center,” she said.
For more information about the Black Harvest Film Festival and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/blackharvest.
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