EURweb |
BLACK FILM FESTIVALS: Hollywood Black Film Festival begins June 13; “Nollywood” comes to Hollywood on June 15.
*The 2006 Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF), a showcase featuring 104 films as well as panels and workshops, will be held in Los Angeles this month at various venues throughout the city.
Opening night will kickoff June 13 at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills with a screening of “Shottas,” a raw urban drama that deals with life in the ghetto. HBFF 2006 wraps on June 18 with “Bastards of the Party,” a documentary co-produced by Antoine Fuqua that examines five decades of gang violence in Southern California between the Crips and the Bloods, the so-called bastard children of the radical 60s Black Panther Party.
HBFF's 2006 Infotainment Conference will be held Thursday, June 15 through Sunday June 18 in the Garden Room at the Le Meridian at Beverly Hills Hotel. The Conference theme asks, “What is Your Path?” with panels designed to guide filmmakers on the road to success. Each year more than 100 top industry experts serve as panelist covering a wide variety of topics ranging from film production, distribution, & marketing to pitching and writing for television and film.
Advance tickets and passes may be purchased online at http://www.hbff.org. For a complete schedule of Hollywood Black Film Festival screenings, exhibits, panels, parties and events, please visit http://www.hbff.org, email: info@hbff.org.
*Meanwhile, Nigeria’s film industry, known as “Nollywood,” will invade the U.S. via “The Nollywood Foundation Convention 2006, African Cinema and Beyond," a film festival to run from June 15 through June 17 at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles (251 S Olive St.).
Organized by the Nollywood Foundation, Inc. [www.nollywoodfoundation.org], a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, the event introduces Nigerian films and culture to American and international audiences; and provides a platform for Nigerian, U.S. and other international filmmakers to exchange ideas and collaborate on business opportunities within Nollywood.
With over a 1,000 movies churned out yearly and revenues estimated at $200-250 million per year, the almost completely digitally based Nollywood is the third largest film industry behind India's Bollywood and America's Hollywood.
"We hope the forum will be an impetus to advancing the technical and creative standards of the Nigerian film industry and encourage further international collaboration," said Egbe Osifo-Dawodu, President of Nollywood Foundation Inc. "Our goal is to help move the industry to the next level in terms of reach, quality and impact."
