Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series Announces Winners of the First Centric/Reel Sisters Awards 2016!

    BROOKLYN, NY, October 10, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series is proud to announce Soul City and Everything I Did Wrong In My 20s as the winner of the first Reel Sisters/Centric Awards. Reel Sisters will present awards to ten filmmakers for cinematic excellence at a reception hosted with the Black Employees of Time Warner on October 19, 6:30 pm-8 pm. The event will be held at Time Warner Center, 10th Floor (58 St. bet. 8th and 9th Aves.). For information visit www.reelsisters.org.

Soul City will receive the Centric/Reel Sisters Best Short Documentary Award and Everything I Did Wrong In My 20s will receive the Centric/Reel Sisters Best Narrative Web Series Award. The award winners will receive a licensing option for the rights to air their films on Centric and other promotional benefits.

The event will offer a special screening of Soul City followed by a conversation on the film moderated by Lisa Durden, the Reel Sisters Film Curator. Monica Berra, Soul City producer/director, and Mira Gandy, a community activist/artist, will discuss the issues addressed in the film, which documents a 1970s effort to build a Black owned and run town in North Carolina. Gandy is a visual artist whose paintings, collages and installations examine issues related to women, identity, beauty, race, history and their intersection in media and culture.

Film lovers can enjoy the festivals full selection of 40 films at Reel Sisters on October 22-23 at LIU Brooklyn (DeKalb & Flatbush Aves.). Reel Sisters is proud to announce our line up of award winning films.

Congratulations to our 2016 Award Winners!

REEL SISTERS BEST WEB SERIES AWARD
& REEL SISTERS/CENTRIC BEST NARRATIVE WEB SERIES AWARD

Everything I Did Wrong In My 20's
Directors: Kaira Akita, Natasha TASH Gray Producers: Kim Williams
Length: 24:42 min. Category: Web series
A series that follows the journey of a 35+ year old woman's search for happiness after she loses her job. Ep. 12 "The Happy Ending Moment, visits her. Ep. 13: "The Faithful Moment": Stephanie discovers faith.

REEL SISTERS BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
& REEL SISTERS/CENTRIC BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY AWARD

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/166083635

Soul City
Producers/Directors: Monica Berra, SheRea DelSol, Gini Richards
Length: 19:57 min. Category: Documentary
Soul City tells the story of a group of civil rights activists and city slickers who attempt to build a multiracial utopia in the heart of Klan Country, North Carolina in the 1970s. Their pioneering efforts to jumpstart this Black-owned and built town run up against opposition and challenges.

REEL SISTERS BEST SCREENPLAY AWARD

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/148269413

Paralysis
Director: R. Shanea Williams Producer: Anthony J. Davis, Mshon Pulliam,
J.C. Williams
Length: 19:50 min. Category: Narrative
A mentally fragile photographer with a sleep disorder fears she may be haunted by a supernatural entity upon moving into her new apartment.

REEL SISTERS BEST NARRATIVE AWARD

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppQ98dx6PEY

Ben and Ara
Director: Nnegest Likke Producer: Samone Norsworthy, Constance Ejuma, Joseph Baird
Length: 86 min. Category: Narrative
Ben, a passionately agnostic PhD student, falls behind in his dissertation and finds a muse in Ara, a devout Muslim. Ben and Ara soon fall in love but grapple with differences in their core beliefs and lifestyle choices. They discover that when two cultures touch each other, the consequences can be magical and tragic.

REEL SISTERS BEST SHORT AWARD

Priyanath
Director: Anietie Antia-Obong Producer: Anietie Antia-Obong, Marcus Warren, Joe D. Norman
Length: 10:45 min. Category: Narrative
Six-year-old Priyanath imagines himself to be a superhero taking down imaginary villains with his extraordinary powers. But when he learns of a real danger near his home, he must decide if he's got what it takes to be a real life superhero.

REEL SISTERS BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/148269413

Amenze: In Between Worlds
Director/Writer/Cinematographer: Mariona Lloreta
Producer: Fernanda Mandriola
Length: 11:05 min. Category: Experimental
Upon receiving a long-lost friend's call from Lagos, Amenze embarks on a journey to reconnect with her real identity after being forced to change her name and move to Brazil as a sex worker.

REEL SISTERS BEST EXPERIMENTAL AWARD

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/169646035
Pangaea
Director: Olivia Peace Producer: Ethan Senser
Length: 6:12 min. Category: Narrative

A lonely girl stranded on a rooftop following the floods of Hurricane Katrina desperately tries to return her life to a state of equilibrium after she is separated from her family.

REEL SISTERS BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/101657616
Wilhemina's War
Producer/Director: June Cross
Length: 62 min. Category: Documentary
For five years, Emmy-winning director June Cross documented how the South has become the epicenter of HIV in the United States. In WILHEMINA'S WAR she tells the story of a matriarch and her granddaughter who try to bring AIDS awareness to rural South Carolina and discovers the cruel consequences.

REEL SISTERS SPIRIT AWARD

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/145462664

Sista in the Brotherhood
Director: Dawn Jones Redstone Producer: Roberta Hunte
Length: 20:37 min. Category: Narrative

A Black, apprentice carpenter struggles to prove herself on her first day at a new job site. An outlier in a white, male-dominated workforce, she's forced to navigate the crew's reactions to her. She receives inspiration from a surprising source to help her decide to make a stand or risk never being recognized as the skilled worker she has become.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EhetqgWUGE

Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess
Producer/Director: Roy T. Anderson Producer: Harcourt T. Fuller
Length: 58:45 min. Category: Documentary

Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess documents one of the most celebrated, but least recognized heroines in the resistance history of the New World. From her mountain stronghold in the majestic Blue Mountains, Queen Nanny directed the warfare that effectively neutralized the vaunted British firepower in the 18th century.

About Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series

Founded in 1997 by African Voices magazine and LIU Brooklyn, Reel Sisters is the first Brooklyn-based festival devoted to women of color filmmakers. Reel Sisters presents 30 films produced, directed and written by women of color across the globe each year. The festival has enriched the city with more than 900 films by women of African, Caribbean, Latino, Asian, Indian, and Native American descent and awarded over $12,000 in scholarships to women filmmakers. The groundbreaking festival has influenced other media organizations to launch initiatives that help Black women gain access to directing jobs in Hollywood and bring independent film projects to life.

Reel Sisters is supported, in part, by Councilmember Jumaane Williams, 45 C.D., Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, 35 C.D., the National Endowment for the Arts (Art Works), the New York State Council on the Arts, Centric, Brooklyn Arts Council, LIU Brooklyn and New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs.

For schedule and tickets: visit www.reelsisters.org
Follow Us on Twitter: @reelsisters

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