When Max’s “The Gilded Age” first shot at the Palace Theatre, Kevin Johnson, the theater’s executive director, saw an opportunity for a new film festival.
“It made me realize that everyone’s coming in from other places to produce events here, produce films here,” Johnson said. “We needed to begin to take some ownership for ourselves and put together something that will allow us to not only focus on the local filmmakers, but also to shed light on the area for filmmakers outside of the area.”
Renaissance Black Film Festival
- When: June 22-25, 2023; up-to-date schedule is available online at www.blackfilmfestny.com
- Where: The Palace Theatre, 19 Clinton Ave., Albany and the Renaissance Albany Hotel Ballroom, 144 State St., Albany
- Tickets: $50 for a single-venue day pass, $90 for exclusive feature and panel/talkback pass, $100 for all-day pass to both venues and $250 for all-access festival pass. Tickets are available online at www.blackfilmfestny.com.
A few miles over in Troy, Patrick Harris, co-founder and president of Collectiveffort, and his team at the creative agency had a similar thought. So when Johnson called Harris with his proposal for a new event, Renaissance Black Film Festival, debuting June 22-25 in downtown Albany, was born.
The Renaissance Black Film Festival will celebrate the work of local, national and international Black film artists. Throughout the weekend, short and feature-length films selected by the festival’s curatorial committee from around 100 submissions from seven countries will screen at Albany’s Renaissance Hotel Ballroom and Palace Theatre, respectively.
When choosing films, the panel balanced story, technique and resources.
“(We were) trying to make space for the fact that being a Black or brown or otherwise filmmaker that you might not have the same resources as your white counterpart,”…
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